Scientific 
Industrial  Efficiency 


BY 

DWIGHT  T.  FARNHAM 
\\ 

INDUSTRIAL    ENGINEER. 


ILLUSTRATED 


BRICK  AND  CLAY  RECORD 


CHICAGO 

1917 


^ 


Copyright    1917. 
BRICK  AND  CLAY  RECORD 


DEDICATED  TO  L.   D.   F. 


396630 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

CHAPTER  I  , 9-16 

The  Application  of  Efficiency  to  Indus- 
trial Management 

CHAPTER  II 18-28 

What    Scientific    Management    Accom- 
plishes   for    Employer    and    Employe 

CHAPTER  III  29-37 

Analytical  Time  Study 

CHAPTER  IV  38-47 

Centralized  Control 

CHAPTER  V 48-59 

Planning  and  Scheduling 

CHAPTER  VI 60-72 

Standardized  Technical  Control 

CHAPTER  VII  73-84 

Three   Important   Aids   to   the   Factory 
Manager 

CHAPTER  VIII 85-97 

Principles  and   Results 

INTRODUCTION    5 

PREFACE  7 


INTRODUCTION 

A  MERICAN  INDUSTRY  is  today  at  the  threshold  of  an 
era  in  which  the  elimination  of  all  wastes,  both  of  labor 
and  material  will  be  vital.  Vast  quantities  of  both  have  been 
destroyed  and  America  must  conserve  every  foot-pound  of 
energy  and  every  ounce  of  raw  material.  What  Mr.  Farn- 
ham  calls  "casual  management"  must  be  replaced  by  exact 
and  definite  methods  of  management — in  other  words  by 
scientific  industrial  efficiency. 

The  editor  became  interested  in  Mr.  Farnham's  work  while 
visiting  a  group  of  industrial  plants  in  St.  Louis  and  induced 
him  to  write  a  series  of  articles  for  Brick  and  Clay  Record. 
These  articles,  together  with  subsequent  study  of  what  can 
be  accomplished  for  an  industry  by  building  into  it  a  mechan- 
ism which  eliminates  waste  as  relentlessly  as  it  forces  the 
recognition  of  true  merit  among  a  company's  employes,  led 
us  to  believe  that  a  statement  of  the  methods  of  scientific 
industrial  efficiency  which  we  have  witnessed  would  prove  of 
general  interest.  • 

After  his  graduation  at  Yale,  Mr.  Farnham  began  his  in- 
dustrial career  as  kiln  fireman  in  a  factory  in  the  mining 
district  of  western  Pennsylvania.  During  the  next  ten  years, 
which  were  spent  with  three  different  companies,  he  worked 
his  way  up  thru  various  foremanships  and  superintendencies 
to  the  position  of  active  head  of  a  three  million  dollar  cor- 
poration on  the  Pacific  Coast.  In  1914  he  resigned  to  study 
industrial  conditions  abroad.  After  his  return  to  this  country 
he  joined  the  staff  of  the  Emerson  Company,  efficiency  engi- 
neers, and  became  supervising  engineer  of  their  western 
division.  Since  the  latter  part  of  1916  he  has  been  engaged 
in  private  practice. 

This  rather  unique  experience  as  laborer,  executive  and 
engineer  we  believe  gives  Mr.  Farnham  an  unusual  view- 
point. We  know  his  work  is  practical  and  that  the  results 
described  in  the  following  pages  are  accomplished  facts.  We 
believe  that  he  combines  the  theoretical  and  the  ideal  with 
the  commercial  successfully  in  that  the  final  result  benefits 
employer  and  employe  alike. 

The  effects  of  scientific  industrial  efficiency  are  three-fold, 


6  Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

that  is,  they  affect  three  classes  of  citizens,  namely,  the  manu- 
facturer, the  employe  and  the  community : 

For  the  manufacturer,  it  cheapens  the  cost  of  production, 
increases  output  without  increasing  investment,  improves 
quality  of  product  and  reduces  labor  troubles. 

For  the  employe,  it  means  higher  pay,  shorter  hours,  less 
fatigue,  steady  employment,  better  satisfaction  in  work  and 
higher  ideals. 

For  the  community  it  is  productive  of  better  citizens,  lower 
taxes,  fewer  strikes,  a  lower  cost  of  living  and  less  hard 
times. 

This  may  sound  rather  Utopian,  but  study  of  what  the 
science  of  management  is  accomplishing  for  industries  in 
America  and  abroad  will  convince  the  most  skeptical. 

EDWIN  G.  ZORN 
Editor,   Brick   and    Clay   Record 


PREFACE 

E  PROBLEM  of  industrial  efficiency  is  one  of  the 
greatest  problems  before  the  American  people  today. 
Candidates  for  the  highest  office  a  country's  citizens  can 
bestow  do  not  indulge  in  the  discussions  of  questions  in 
which  the  people  lack  interest  and  do  not  advocate  re- 
forms unless  they  believe  them  vital  to  the  welfare  of  the 
country. 

Charles  E.  Hughes,  in  one  of  his  campaign  speeches, 
made  the  following  statement: 

"We  have  got  along  in  this  country  altogether  too 
easily  with  our  wealth  of  natural  resources,  but  now  we 
have  reached  a  point  where  it  is  necessary,  as  it  has  been 
necessary  abroad,  to  try  to  reduce  all  waste,  to  try  to 
prevent  all  unnecessary  outlay  and  to  try  to  make  busi- 
ness successful,  according  to  the  merit  of  a  well  organized, 
economically  conducted  business. 

"We  see  in  each  of  the  warring  European  nations  a 
marvelous  national  efficiency.  Let  it  not  be  supposed 
that  this  efficiency  will  not  count  when  Europe,  once  more 
at  peace,  pushes  its  productive  powers  to  the  utmost 
limit. 

"We  must  meet  the  most  severe  competition  in  industry. 
We  are  undisciplined,  defective  in  organization,  loosely 
knit,  industrially  unprepared. 

"Two  words  appeal  to  me,  indeed  as  the  watchwords 
of  the  future.  They  are  Co-operation  and  Efficiency." 

President  Wilson  has  gone  even  further — in  his  appoint- 
ment of  a  man  who  has  written  a  book  on  scientific  man- 
agement to  the  supreme  bench,  in  his  appointment  to  the 
Cabinet  of  a  man  who  is  widely  known  as  an  expert  in 
efficiency  and  in  his  encouragement  of  industrial  pre- 
paredness thru  the  work  of  the  Federal  Trade  Commission. 

During  the  past  fifteen  years  the  improvement  of  indus- 
trial efficiency  by  means  of  the  introduction  of  scientific 
management  into  factories,  railroads  and  institutions  of 
every  sort,  which  employ  workers  and  which  boast  of  an 
organization,  has  become  a  profession.  The  Harvard 
Graduate  School,  Pennsylvania  State  College,  Dartmouth 


8  Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

and  a  number  of  other  educational  institutions  are  prepar- 
ing men  to  apply  the  principles  and  methods  to  the  indus- 
tries of  the  country.  A  literature  of  several  hundred 
volumes  has  arisen.  The  work  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
movement,  of  Taylor,  Emerson,  Gantt,  Gilbreth  and  their 
associates,  has  been  widely  described  and  is  too  well 
known  to  call  for  comment.  The  movement  is  a  success 
and  is  here  to  stay. 

In  preparing  the  following  pages  the  writer  has  en- 
deavored to  describe  some  applications  of  the  science 
which  have  come  under  his  own  observation  during  the 
past  ten  years,  both  as  an  executive  and  as  an  engineer. 
The  illustrations  are,  for  the  most  part,  drawn  from  a 
single  industry — that  of  clay  products — the  fourth  in  im- 
portance among  the  mineral  industries  of  America.  It 
should  be  understood,  however,  that  the  principles  are 
equally  applicable  to  other  industries — as  the  writer  has 
had  occasion  to  prove  by  actual  experience. 

To  the  two  classes  of  critics — those  who  find  the  ideals 
of  a  book  of  this  sort  too  low,  on  account  of  its  commer- 
cialism, or  too  high  on  the  ground  of  impracticability — 
the  writer  can  only  say  that  such  is  the  American  tem- 
perament  a  mixture  of  high  ideals  and  shrewd  common 

sense.  Scientific  management  combines  both  qualities. 
For  that  reason  its  future  is  as  sure  as  that  of  the  Amer- 
ican people,  whose  success  also  has  rested  and  will  continue 
to  rest  upon  a  judicious  mixture  of  these  two  elements. 
If  this  book,  then,  brings  a  higher  ideal  to  a  single  busi- 
ness man,  or  a  more  practical  idea  to  a  single  dreamer, 
the  writer  will  be  content. 

Saint  Louis,  Nov.  1,  1916.  D.  T.  F. 


Scientific 
Industrial  Efficiency 


CHAPTER  I 


The  Application  of  Efficiency 
to  Industrial  Management 

/~\F  LATE  YEARS  the  word  "Efficiency"  has  been  very 
^^  much  abused.  It  sounds  so  well  and  it  is  such  a  con- 
venient word  that  every  newspaper  reporter  and  every 
writer  of  advertisements  uses  it  to  round  out  his  sentence, 
while  he  is  waiting  for  the  next  idea  to  materialize.  A 
few  days  ago,  in  looking  over  the  "Saturday  Evening 
Post"  in  which  the  advertisements,  on  account  of  their 
cost,  are  probably  written  by  the  highest  priced  ad.  writ- 
ers in  the  country,  I  counted  up  twenty-six  pages  of  ad- 
vertisements. Thirty-three  per  cetit.  of  these  advertise- 
ments contained  the  word  "Efficiency"  or  one  of  its 
immediate  derivatives,  applied  indiscriminately  to  every- 
thing from  motor  cars  to  muffins. 

On  account  of  its  usefulness,  the  word,  like  a  good 
many  other  good  things  in  this  country  of  ours,  has  been 
very  much  over-worked.  In  fact,  most  of  us  have  either 
adopted  it  as  our  own  pet  word  which  we  feel  exactly 
describes  us  and  our  way  of  doing  things,  or  else  we  have 
encountered  so  many  clever  young  men  who  have  told 
us  how  efficient  they  were — either  in  person  or  in  print- 
that  we  loathe  and  detest  the  word  and  all  that  pertains 
thereto. 

In  this  wave  of  "Efficiency"  which  has  swept  over  the 
country  in  the  past  ten  years,  it  has  been  very  easy  to 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that,  to  the  industrial  engineer,  the 
term  has  a  very  definite  and  exact  meaning.  The  effi- 


10          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

ciency  of  a  workman  or  of  a  factory  is  not  a  matter  of 
opinion.  Instead,  it  is  the  result  of  a  careful  application 
of  certain  scientific  formulae  to  existing  conditions.  The 
engineer,  when  he  has  finished  his  study  and  has  made 
his  calculations,  is  able  to  tell  you  that  a  certain  work- 
man is,  say,  seventy  per  cent,  efficient;  that  the  workmen 
in  that  department  average  sixty-six  and  two-thirds  per 
cent,  efficient,  and  that  the  proper  application  of  certain 
principles  will  effect  a  saving  of  so  many  dollars  a  year. 

SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  A    RESULT  OF   PROGRESS 

The  application  of  scientific  management  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  efficiency  to  industrial  concerns  is  an  outgrowth 
of  industrial  progress  in  this  country  which  has  taken 
place  during  the  last  fifteen  years.  The  principles  them- 
selves, like  most  other  basic  truths  of  life,  are  incalculably 
old.  We  have  an  example  of  the  set  task  in  Exodus, 
when  the  task  masters  of  Egypt  were  commanded  by 
Pharaoh  to  lay  upon  the  Israelites  the  same  tale  of  brick 
but  to  withhold  the  allowance  of  straw.  On  that  occasion 
Pharaoh's  men  "walked  out''  on  him,  just  as  any  modern 
laborers  would  do  if  the  impossible  were  demanded  of 
them. 

The  beginnings  of  German  efficiency  are  chronicled 
by  Tacitus  in  the  first  century.  He  relates  that  it  was 
the  custom  of  the  Teutons  to  sit  about  their  banquet 
table  and,  amidst  song  and  drink,  boast  of  the  great 
deeds  they  would  do  next  day..  Having  set  their  tasks 
while  they  were  feeling  extremely  brave,  it  was  up  to 
them  to  go  out  in  the  cold  gray  dawn  of  the  morning 
after  and  make  good.  If  they  were  successful,  their 
victim's  loot  was  their  reward.  If  they  failed,  their 
penalty  was  "the  horse  laugh"  from  their  companions. 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  century  Von  Moltke 
perfected  the  staff  idea  for  the  German  army.  The  line 
does  the  fighting  and  the  staff  provides  the  soup  and 
the  twenty-eight  centimeter  guns,  and,  to  date,  the  staff 
has  been  pretty  regularly  "on  the  job"  with  both  these 
essentials. 

In  the  eighties  the  horse  racing  fraternity  began  to 
standardize  their  business.  They  made  use  of  the  stop 
watch,  they  standardized  equipment — harness,  shoes  and 
sulkies — and  they  developed  breeding  into  a  science  long 
before  we  ever  heard  of  eugenics.  As  a  result,  that  ideal 


Application  of  Efficiency  11 

of  equine  speed  which  prevailed  when  I  was  a  boy — 
the  two-forty  gait — would  be  as  much  use  to  a  race-horse 
now  as  a  wooden  leg  would  be  to  a  football  player. 

In  1911  Frederick  Taylor  and  Harrington  Emerson  gave 
to  the  world,  in  book  form,  the  results  of  their  labors  in 
industrial  plants  under  the  titles  of  "Scientific  Manage- 
ment" and  "Efficiency,"  Since  then,  there  have  been  enough 
books  written  on  the  subject  to  fill  a  small  library.  These 
books  treat  of  many  different  phases  of  the  work  and  of 
its  application  to  nearly  every  sort  of  industry.  The 
great  principle  underlying  the  whole  thing,  however,  is 
that  of  the  scientifically  predetermined  task  with  a  reward 
for  its  accomplishment  or  partial  accomplishment. 

A    BRIEF    HISTORY    OF    INDUSTRY    IN    AMERICA 

In  order  to  understand  just  how  important  an  innovation 
this  was,  it  is  necessary  to  touch  briefly  upon  the  change 
in  industrial  America  in  the  last  fifty  years.  In  about 
1850  the  steam  engine  became  a  factor  in  our  industrial 
life.  Before  that,  we  were  all  more  or  less  working  for 
ourselves.  A  man  was  a  farmer,  or  he  kept  the  village 
tinshop  or  the  crossroads  tavern.  He  owned  the  busi- 
ness or  he  was  intimately  and  personally  associated  with 
the  owner.  The  "boss"  was  prepared  to  give  his  helpers 
a  large  amount  of  attention  whenever  necessary,  as  busi- 
ness concerns  were  small  and  employed  only  a  few  hands. 
Furthermore,  the  owner  knew  all  about  each  workman, 
and  all  about  his  family,  and  was  prepared  to  praise,  or  to 
chide,  or  to  make  allowance  for  his  employes,  who  were 
his  intimates  and  his  friends.  As  the  steam  engine  came 
into  more  general  use,  factories  grew  larger  and  larger, 
until  now,  a  mill  employing  a  thousand  workmen  is  a 
mere  baby  in  our  industrial  world. 

Suppose  Henry  Ford  were  to  decide  to  spend  an  hour 
with  each  of  his  men  in  order  to  see  for  himself  exactly 
what  each  one  was  doing  and  to  inquire  about  the  health 
of  "his  folks."  If  he  began  this  month  (January,  1917) 
and  worked  at  it  ten  hours  a  day  every  day  in  the  year, 
he  would  finish  his  talk  with  the  last  man  some  time  in 
February,  1921.  And  yet  a  good  many  people  want  us 
to  use  exactly  the  same  business  methods  our  grand- 
fathers used. 

The  result  of  the  change  in  labor  conditions  is  perhaps 
best  seen  by  examining  the  two  wage  systems  in  most 
common  use. 


12          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

REAL   MEANING  OF  THE   DAY  WAGE  SYSTEM 

The  day  wage  system  practically  amounts  to  this: — I 
say  to  a  man  "I  will  give  you  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day  if 
you  will  come  and  work  for  me  in  my  factory  ten  hours 
every  day.  If  you  are  able  to  persuade  my  foreman  that 
you  are  working  hard  and  faithfully  you  can  continue 
10  work  for  me.  If  you  are  a  poor  'bluffer'  or  a  poor 
worker  you'll  have  to  go."  He  accepts  this  contract  and 
what  is  the  result? 

1.  The    workers    are   paid    for   the    time   served,   not    for 
the  amount  of  work  done. 

2.  The   lazy  man   or  the   systematic  loafer  receives  as 
much  pay  as  the  hardworking  ambitious  laborer. 

3.  The     naturally     ambitious     worker     has     no     incentive 
to    do    more    than    his    lazy    neighbor    and    probably    doss 
less,   being  better   able  to    figure   out   and  put   into   effect 
schemes  for   "soldiering." 

4.  The   foreman's   usual  means  of  determining  the   ef- 
ficiency of  his  crew  is  their  general  appearance  of  bustle. 

5.  There    is    no    incentive    for    the    workman    to    learn 
from  each  other  or  for  the  foreman  to  teach  his  men  bet- 
ter  methods,    even    if    he    knows    them.      The   foreman    is 
usually  judged  by  the  apparent  industry  of  his  gang. 

6.  Day  work  is  a  game  between  the   foreman  and  his 
laborers.     His  part  is  to  drive  them  into  doing  as  much  as 
possible,  by  roaring  at  them  and  by  keeping  ever  present 
the  fear  of  discharge.     Their  part  is  to  retain  their  jobs, 
meantime  doing  as  little  work  as  possible. 

Who  wins?  The  foreman  over  sixty  men  who  can  give 
each  one  one  minute's  attention  out  of  each  hour — ten  min- 
utes a  day — or  the  workmen — each  one  of  whom  has  fifty- 
nine  minutes  out  of  the  hour  unwatched — when  he  can 
conspire  with  his  fellows  to  do  as  little  work  as  they 
agree  is  safe?  You  can't  blame  them.  You  and  I  would 
do  the  same  thing  in  their  place. 

WHERE  THE    PIECE   WORK    METHOD   FAILS 

To  get  away  from  this  sort  of  thing,  somebody  invented 
the  piece  work  system.  Theoretically,  since  the  workman 
is  rewarded  in  direct  proportion  to  the  work  he  does,  the 
ambitious  worker  makes  the  maximum  of  which  he  is 
capable,  the  lazy  worker  is  proportionately  penalized  and 
the  output  of  the  shop  is  maintained  at  the  highest  level. 
Supervision  is  required  only  to  maintain  quality  and  it  is 


Application  of  Efficiency  13 

to  each  worker's  advantage  to  keep  his  machine  in  the 
best  possible  shape. 

Actually,  the  whole  system  goes  to  pieces  on  the  diffi- 
culty of  setting  piece  rates  properly.  In  the  usual  course 
of  events  it  is  necessary  to  set  a  new  piece  rate  before 
any  quantity  of  the  article  in  question  has  been  manufac- 
tured. Setting  the  rate,  therefore,  resolves  itself  into  an 
argument  between  the  "boss"  and  the  worker,  based  on 
past  records,  and  the  final  bargain  is  a  compromise. 

As  the  worker  gains  experience  in  making  a  new  ar- 
ticle he  naturally  cuts  the  time  per  piece — as  much  as  he 
dares — and  earns  as  much  as  he  dares — knowing  from  past 
experience  that,  if  his  daily  earnings  go  beyond  a  cer- 
tain point,  his  rate  per  piece  will  be  cut. 

It  is  to  the  worker's  advantage  to  set  the  rate  as  high 
as  possible,  so  that  he  may  earn  as  much  as  his  boss 
will  let  him  with  the  least  possible  effort — especially  as  his 
record  on  this  job  will  be  used  as  a  basis  for  bargaining 
on  the  next  job. 

All  this  leads  to  certain  subterfuges  which  hurt  the  em- 
ployer and  have  a  bad  effect  upon  the  character  of  the 
employe.  If  the  worker  discovers  a  quicker  way  to  do 
the  job  he  keeps  it  to  himself.  That  becomes  one  of  his 
reserves  to  draw  on  when  the  "boss"  drives  him  to  the 
limit.  He  does  not  spend  any  time  inventing  new  tools  or 
devices  to  do  the  work  more  quickly.  He  is  willing  that 
there  should  be  enough  break-downs  so  that  the  "boss" 
will  have  to  allow  for  break-downs  next  "bargain  day." 
He  favors  a  slow  speed  and  lost  motion  on  his  machine 
and  he  argues  the  necessity  of  various  false  motions  in 
handling  the  material. 

Very  often  also  the  weak  are  driven  too  fast,  knowing  only 
speed  and  strenuousness  where,  under  a  different  system,  they 
would  be  carefully  taught  every  detail  of  the  work,  the 
obstacles  would  be  removed  and  the  workers  gradually 
fitted  to  do  efficient  work. 

The  general  effect  of  the  piece  work  system  is  to  place 
a  premium  on  inefficiency  and  hypocrisy,  to  make  for  sus- 
picion, mutual  distrust  and  antagonism  between  employer 
and  employe. 

Anyone  who  has  been  in  the  timekeeper's  room  in  a 
big  factory  when  some  piece  rate  worker  has  earned  five 
dollars  when  the  average  earning  is  around  three  and  has 
heard  the  "howl"  that  goes  up,  the  immediate  calling  of 
the  foreman  on  the  carpet  and  the  drastic  investigation 


14          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

which  takes  place,  will  not  doubt  a  single  word  of  what 
has  been  said  about  piece  rates. 

The  general  failure  of  these  two  methods  of  rewarding 
labor  has  led  to  all  sorts  of  expedients.  These  have  been 
successful  directly  in  proportion  to  their  realization  of 
the  ultimate  principle — The  scientific  determination  of  the 
exact  amount  of  work  a  man  should  do  under  existing  con- 
ditions and  his  reward  exactly  in  proportion  to  his  accom- 
plishments. 

SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT    HELPS   THE    WORKER 

When  the  industrial  engineer  has  finished  this  work, 
every  workman  in  the  factory  which  he  has  been  study- 
ing has  been  set  up  in  business  for  himself.  He  is  not  a 

time  server paid  to  be  present  eight,  nine  or  ten  hours 

a  day  and  tempted  to  "soldier"  whenever  possible  by  his 
natural  rebellion  against  some  overseer  who  stalks 
through  the  plant  at  intervals  and  "bawls  him  out"  be- 
cause he  doesn't  appear  busy.  He  is  not  paid  exactly  in 
proportion  to  the  work  some  foreman  thinks  he  does. 
Furthermore,  the  amount  of  work  he  should  do  has  been 
scientifically  predetermined — not  guessed  at  by  some 
rusty  foreman  who  learned  by  experience  twenty  years 
ago. 

The  engineer  when  he  determines  the  standard — the 
amount  of  work  each  workman  should  do — has  taken  into 
consideration  the  exact  conditions  under  which  the  work- 
man labors;  has  made  due  allowance  for  fatigue  on  the 
particular  sort  of  work;  has  insisted  on  regular  rest 
periods  and  has  accomplished  this  in  such  a  way  by  the 
use  of  the  stop  watch  and  the  analytical  time  study,  that  it 
is  absolutely  impossible  for  the  workmen  to  deceive  him 
as  to  the  quantity  of  work  which  can  be  done  under  the 
conditions  existing. 

Furthermore,  at  the  time  the  analytical  study  is  made 
by  the  industrial  engineer  existing  conditions  are  bettered, 
and  materials  and  tools  are  delivered  exactly  as  required  by 
low-priced  laborers  instead  of  being  gone  after  by  the 
high-priced  workman.  Instructions  as  to  methods  of 
doing  the  work  are  available  at  all  times,  instead  of  the 
workmen  having  to  leave  their  work  and  hunt  up  the 
foreman  for  information.  Delays  due  to  break-downs  of 
machines  are  reduced  and  everything  is  done  to  make 
conditions  such  that  the  workman  can  do  the  maximum 


Application  of  Efficiency  15 

quantity    of   work   with   the    least   fatigue   in    the    shortest 
possible  time. 

GIVES    HIM    A    CHANCE    FOR    A    GREATER    REWARD 

Knowing  that  the  exact  amount  of  work  he  can  do  has 
been  determined  in  such  a  way  that  attempts  to  deceive 
would  be  futile  and  that  rates  once  set  will  not  be  cut, 
the  workman  is  not  afraid  to  let  himself  out  and  do  his 
utmost.  Furthermore,  he  is  encouraged  to  do  this  by  the 
bonus  system  of  payment  which  allows  him  his  day 
wages  if  for  any  reason  he  cannot  make  the  standard  set 
— and  a  liberal  reward  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent. 
additional  if  he  accomplishes,  or  exceeds  this  standard. 

Besides  being  rewarded  for  the  quantity  of  work  done, 
this  reward  is  also  strictly  dependent  upon  the  quality  of 
work  turned  out.  In  addition,  time  saving  and  quality 
improving  innovations  on  the  part  of  the  workman  are 
encouraged  and  rewarded  so  that  the  workman  is  just  as 
much  in  business  for  himself  as  the  small  shopkeeper  or 
the  owner  of  the  million  dollar  corporation,  in  that 
his  reward  is  directly  proportional  to  his  application,  fore- 
sight and  ability. 

The  result  is  that  the  quality  of  the  product  is  im- 
proved, the  cost  of  productive  labor  is  decreased — often 
fifty  per  cent. — output  is  increased,  overhead  is  reduced 
and  the  cost  of  production  gets  down  to  a  point  where 
no  violation  of  anti-trust  laws  is  necessary  in  order  to 
drive  competitors  from  the  field. 

There  are  also  innumerable  other  phases  of  the  work,  rang- 
ing from  the  analysis  of  further  investment  to  the  scien- 
tific marketing  of  the  product,  with  the  application  of  the 
bonus  reward  for  salesmen  which  should  not  be  overlooked. 

DELIVERIES   COVERED    BY  SCHEDULE 

The  matter  of  deliveries  is  taken  care  of  by  scheduling. 
Every  part — whether  it  be  a  part  of  a  patent  medicine 
or  of  an  automobile — is  scheduled  from  the  time  the  cus- 
tomer's order  is  received  until  the  goods  are  shipped. 
This  scheduling  covers  the  ordering  of  material,  the  fol- 
lowing up  of  material  orders,  its  reception  at  the  plant, 
its  storage,  its  delivery  to  workrooms,  primary  and  sec- 
ondary operations  upon  it,  assembly  of  parts,  inspection 
and  finally  its  shipment.  With  every  order  in  the  house 
so  scheduled,  with  the  time  of  every  operation  known 
through  standardization,  and  with  a  penalty  or  a  reward 


16          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

dependent  upon  each  workman's  adherence  to  schedule, 
the  factory  is  in  a  position  to  state  exactly  at  all  times 
to  the  inquiring  salesman  just  when  delivery  can  be  made. 
As  a  result,  the  salesman  knows  he  is  getting  the  truth, 
and  just  what  will  happen  to  him  if  he  stretches  the 
truth.  He  is  benefited  in  the  long  rim  and  the  firm  is 
benefited  by  an  unimpeachable  reputation  for  integrity  in 
delivery  promises. 

The  determination  of  exact  costs  of  operation  in  time 
to  be  of  assistance  in  setting  the  administrative  policy; 
the  organization  of  the  executive  force  in  such  a  way  as 
to  eliminate  friction  and  work-at-cross-purposes,  including 
the  age-old  row  between  the  selling  and  the  operating 
departments  which  exists  in  nine  businesses  out  of  ten; 
the  abolition  of  reduplication  of  work  in  the  accounting 
and  non-productive  departments;  the  systematization  of 
material  and  supply  purchase,  to  enable  market  fluctua- 
tions to  be  turned  to  advantage;  the  reduction  of  wastes 
and  of  rejections  by  customers  through  analysis  of  the 
causes — all  these  things  come  within  the  province  of  the 
industrial  engineer. 

During  the  past  fifteen  years  these  principles  have  been 
applied  to  railroads,  steel  mills,  brick  and  sewer-pipe 
plants,  logging  camps,  farms,  hotels,  department  stores, 
paper  mills,  banks,  knitting  mills,  mines,  automobile  fac- 
tories, public  service  corporations,  city  governments,  and 
so  on.  There  have  been  failures  of  course  but  these  have 
been  due  to  faults  of  application  rather  than  to  the  prin- 
ciples themselves.  A  Harvard  professor  who  spent  four 
years  investigating  what  has  been  accomplished  lays  the 
greater  part  of  the  failures  to  the  personality  of  the  man- 
agement and  to  the  personality  of  the  consulting  engi- 
neer. It  is  necessary  for  the  engineer  to  have  the  com- 
plete and  unqualified  support  of  those  in  charge  and  to 
deserve  that  support.  Under  such  circumstances,  there  can 
be  no  failure  and  it  is  a  common  thing  for  economies 
amounting  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  be  effected 
in  concerns  employing  less  than  four  hundred  men. 


CHAPTER  II 

What    Scientific     Management    Accom- 

plishes for  Employer  and 

for  Employe 


A  FEW  YEARS  AGO  any  number  of  innova- 
^^  tions  in  the  management  of  a  factory  or  business, 
which  every  one  now  regards  as  good  business,  were 
branded  as  "hifalutin'  ideas"  or  as  rank  idealism.  The 
"Safety  First"  movement  is  even  now  looked  upon  in 
some  sections  of  the  country  as  a  charitable  idea  worked 
out  by  "a  lot  of  fellers  with  more  money  than  sense." 
It  takes  a  damage  suit  for  eighteen  or  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  decided  by  a  warm-hearted  jury  with  little  use 
for  corporations,  to  convince  a  certain  type  of  executive 
who  is  the  possessor  of  what  he  calls  "good  old  fashioned 
common  sense"  that  safety  shaft  collars,  guarded  belts. 
lighted  stairways  and  an  occasional  hand  rail  placed 
around  high  speed  machines  are  good  investments. 

In  the  same  way  a  great  many  men  look  with  deep 
distrust  upon  any  plan  whatsoever,  which  has  about  it 
the  slightest  flavor  of  philanthropy.  This  type  regards 
the  working  man  as  a  sort  of  ravenous  beast,  having  no- 
traits  in  common  with  ordinary  white  folks  and  is  firmly 
convinced  that  if  you  give  the  laborer  an  inch  he  will 
take  an  ell.  Consequently,  he  believes  in  conceding 
nothing  to  his  employes  until  he  is  absolutely  forced  to 
it.  He  forgets  that  people  in  general  are  quite  likely  to 
act  up  to  the  general  opinion  we  have  ot  them.  If  every- 
one treats  a  man  as  if  he  were  a  beast,  before  long  he 
will  act  like  a  beast.  This  type  of  employer,  unfortunately 
for  him,  is  sooner  or  later  convinced  ol  the  error  of  his 
ways  by  what  is  now  generally  known  as  "collective 
bargaining"  —  which  in  extreme  cases  is  applied  with  a 

17 


18          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

club,  after   dark,  or  by  means  of  a  general   conflagration, 
in  which  the  whole  works  go  up  in  flames. 

RESISTANCE    TO    INNOVATION 

The  third  type  isn't  convinced  until  he's  dead.  Not 
long  ago,  the  writer  was  waiting  for  a  man  who  is  at 
the  head  of  the  Executive  Club  of  one  of  our  largest 
cities — a  writer  of  note  upon  industrial  and  economic 
questions — to  finish  some  dictation.  There  was  one  let- 
ter of  several  pages  which  he  answered  with  a  polite 
note  thanking  the  gentleman  for  his  interest  in  an  article 
recently  published  and  telling  him  how  much  he  appre- 
ciated frank  criticism.  When  he  had  finished  he  turned 
to  me  and  said: 

"There  is  no  use  arguing  with  that  type  of  knocker— 
they  don't  understand  English  because  they  haven't  any- 
thing to  understand  with.  If  you  come  back  at  them  you 
simply  hurt  their  feelings  without  penetrating  their  un- 
derstandings, so  I  just  thank  'em  and  say  goodbye." 

It  is  among  these  types  that  you  find  the  owner  or  the 
executive  who  always  suspects  Scientific  Management  be- 
cause it  does  something  for  the  employe — because  it 
seems  to  offer  a  greater  interest  in  work  which  is 
drudgery,  and  to  increase  the  laborers'  pay.  He  believes 
that  any  system  which  would  induce  Ida  Tarbell  to  stand 
up  before  the  Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Rela- 
tions and  to  state  that  such  a  scheme  offered  a  solution 
of  the  country  wide  industrial  unrest,  must  be  wrong 
on  its  face,  because  the  laboring  man — according  to  his  creed 
— 'deserves  all  the  unrest  it  is  possible  to  supply  him  with. 

On  January  20,  1915,  Miss  Tarbell   said  in  part: 

"There  is  an  increasing  desire  on  the  part  of  the  em- 
ployers of  America  to  give  the  laboring  man  full  justice 
and  the  idea  is  steadily  at  work. 

"It  is  coming  out  fundamentally  in  what  is  called  the 
Science  of  Management.  This  breaks  away  entirely  from 
the  old  ideas.  It  means  better  earnings,  shorter  hours 
and,  most  important  of  all,  the  development  of  the  man 
as  a  worker. 

"One  reason  why  Scientific  Management  is  so  im- 
portant is  that  it  requires  co-operation  and  collective  ac- 
tion to  make  it  really  successful." 

The  account  continues:  "Miss  Tarbell  said  she  had 
seen  the  system  at  work  in  half  a  dozen  big  factories  and 
laid  stress  upon  its  power  to  push  men  out  of  their 


What  Scientific  Management  Means    19 

ruts.  She  answered  the  common  objection  to  Scientific 
Management  as  to  its  being  a  dangerous  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  unscrupulous  employes  by  stating  that  in  such 
hands  it  would  not  work  at  all. 

"Miss  Tarbell  also  advocated  one-third  of  the  extra 
profit  earned  thru  the  introduction  of  Scientific  Management 
going  to  the  managers,  one-third  to  labor  and  one-third  to 
the  shop." 

NECESSITY    FOR    ABSOLUTE    FAIRNESS 

It  is  better  that  the  type  of  factory  owner  cited  in  the 
opening  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  should  not  be  able  to 
comprehend  Scientific  Management.  Occasionally,  a 
sort  of  hybrid  exists  who  can  see  opportunities  for  gain 
thru  the  installation  of  the  system,  but  who  is  not  broad 
enough  to  comprehend  that  the  fair  deal,  necessarily,  in 
order  to  be  a  fair  deal,  must  secure  something  for  the 
employe  as  well  as  for  the  employer. 

One  such  instance  came  to  the  writer's  attention  about 
a  year  ago.  A  thoroly  capable  engineer  had  set  stand- 
ards of  production  on  all  the  operations  in  a  furniture 
factory  employing  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  men.  By 
the  use  of  the  stop-watch  and  the  analytical  time  study 
he  had  figured  out  just  how  long  it  should  take  each  man 
working  at  his  best  to  perform  his  task.  Incidentally,  in 
this  particular  instance,  it  would  have  meant  that  if  each 
man  had  worked  as  prescribed — without  physical  injury 
to  any  employe — the  production  of  the  factory  would 
have  been  increased  one-third,  and  the  payroll  cost  of 
each  article  reduced  one-third.  To  induce  the  men  to  do 
their  work,  according  to  the  methods  prescribed,  the  en- 
gineer proposed  a  reward  which  would  pay  them  in  pro- 
portion to  what  they  accomplished. 

The  answer  of  the  owner  of  the  company  was  charac- 
teristic: 

"You  say  they  ought  to  do  the  work  in  this  time  and 
you  want  to  pay  'em  for  doing  what  they  ought  to  do? 
Well,  you  can  just  make  'em  come  up  to  standard  with- 
out any  bonus!" 

The  engineer,  as  soon  as  he  found  his  man  couldn't  be 
moved  by  explanation  or  argument,  resigned.  Various 
executives  who  were  ordered  to.  accomplish  the  impos- 
sible also  resigned  and  at  last  reports  the  concern  was 


20          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

going    on    the     rocks     about    as     fast    as    industrial    chaos 
from   receiving  shed   to    shipping   room    could   take   it. 
EMPLOYER  MUST  BE    PREPARED  TO   DO   HIS   PART 

It  may  seem  a  long  way  from  a  discussion  of  the  em- 
ployer's attitude  toward  labor  or  of  what  happened  in  a 
furniture  factory  to  your  own  particular  business,  but  it  is 
absolutely  essential  that  the  reader  understand  that  it  is 
quite  as  necessary  that  the  factory  owner  or  the  chief 
executive  be  of  the  right  sort  and  in  the  right  frame  of 
mind,  as  it  is  that  the  enginer  be  competent. 

The  late  Frederick  W.  Taylor  said  to  the  writer  only 
a  few  weeks  before  his  death: 

"The  attitude  of  mind  is  essential.  The  factory  owner 
must  want  Scientific  Management  badly — badly  enough 
to  do  as  he  is  told.  He  must  have  faith  enough  to  take 
him  thru  the  inevitable  periods  of  discouragement.  The 
type  who  foresees  all  the  difficulties  which  might  occur, 
and  who  is  everlastingly  fearful,  is  not  ready  for  Scientific 
Management.  The  man  who  would  secure  its  benefits 
must  have  both  courage  and  faith." 

He  then  went  on  to  cite  a  number  of  instances — naming 
some  of  the  best  known  corporations  in  the  country  in 
which  the  directors  had  wanted  the  system  installed,  bui 
whose  call  he  and  his  associates  had  refused  because  of 
the  type  of  executive  in  charge. 

A  four-year  investigation  of  the  success  of  Scientific 
Management  in  one  hundred  and  forty-five  factories  by 
C.  Bertrand  Thompson,  consulting  engineer  and  lecturer 
at  Harvard  University,  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  larger 
part  of  the  failures — in  fact,  all  but  one — were  due  to: 

I.  The   Personality   of   the   Management. 

II.  The    Personality   of   the   Consulting   Engineer. 
In  the  first  case  the  failures  were  due  to: 

A.  The     managements'     rushing     in     with     great     en- 
thusiasm   and    then    vacillating    between    strong    support 
and   doubt   and    distrust — a   very  weak-kneed   course. 

B.  Dissension  in   Management — foremen  really  in  con 
trol,  etc. 

C.  Absentee  Control. 

D.  Lawyers   in   Charge. 

E.  Sheer    Incompetency    of    Management. 

F.  Financial  Inability   to  Carry  it  Thru. 

G.  Panics — Fall    in    Output. 

H.     Weak    Selling   Organization. 


What  Scientific  Management  Means    21 

The  longer  most  of  us  live,  the  more  firmly  we  come 
to  believe  that  it  is  very  seldom  that  the  Fates  grant  us 
something  for  nothing.  This  law  runs  even  thru  science, 
as  countless  inventors  who  have  spent  their  lives  "invent- 
ing" perpetual  motion  machines  have  discovered.  The  rule 
is  just  as  true  in  the  case  of  industrial  problems.  The 
benefits,  financial  and  otherwise,  to  be  obtained  from  the 
introduction  of  Scientific  Management  into  a  factory  are 
very  great,  but  the  owner  who  would  obtain  them  must 
be  prepared  at  the  outset  to  go  thru  periods  of  doubt 
and  discouragement  and  often  to  incur  a  certain  amount 
of  initial  expense  while  the  bread  is  being  cast  unon  the 
waters.  Anyone  who  represents  the  thing  in  a  different 
light  is  borrowing  a  leaf  from  the  book  of  the  mining 
stock  promoter  and  the  gentleman  who  has  a  gold  brick 
to  dispose  of  at  a  sacrifice. 

THE    NEED    FOR    MORE    EFFICIENT    MANAGEMENT 

Recently  the  need  for  more  efficient  management  thru- 
out  the  country  has  been  brought  to  light  most  forcibly. 
The  Federal  Trade  Commission,  upon  investigation,  has 
found  that  outside  of  banking,  railroad  and  public  utility 
corporations,  there  are  about  250,000  business  corpora- 
tions in  the  country.  Of  these  over  100,000  report  no 
net  income  whatsoever.  Another  90,000  make  less  than 
$5,000  a  year  each,  leaving  60,000 — or  less  than  one-fourth 
of  the  business  corporations  of  the  United  States — which 
earn  over  $5,000  per  year,  and  so  may  be  termed  success- 
ful. 

Of  these  successful  corporations  only  about  one-half 
charged  off  depreciation.  In  other  words,  if  they  had 
kept  their  books  fairly  and  honestly,  it  is  a  question  how 
many  of  them,  would  have  to  come  within  the  successful 
twenty-five  per  cent.  Edward  N.  Hurley,  then  vice- 
chairman  of  the  commission,  stated  that  "Failure  to  pro- 
vide for  depreciation  is  one  of  the  causes  that  has  a 
great  influence  on  the  business  death  rate." 
The  same  gentleman  further  stated: 

"If  you  compare  our  figures  which  show  that  only  ten 
per  cent,  of  our  manufacturers  and  merchants  know  what 
it  costs  to  manufacture  and  sell  their  products  you  have 
the  answer  as  to  why  Germany  has  been  so  successful 
in  developing  such  a  high  standard  of  efficiency  in  manu- 


22          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

facturing  and  distributing  her  products,  not  only  in 
Germany,  but  in  the  markets  of  the  world." 

The  clay  business,  from  which  most  of  the  illustrations 
in  this  book  are  drawn,  is  an  average  American  industry. 
Its  leaders  are  as  fine  men  and  as  progressive  as  the 
leaders  of  any  business  in  the  country,  and  its  mossbacks 
carry  more  moss  to  the  square  inch  of  back  than  any 
other  manufacturers  in  the  country — and  are  proud  of  it. 
The  writer  at  various  times  managed  a  number  of  clay 
plants  of  various  sorts  for  several  different  companies, 
during  which  time  he  visited  and  studied  conditions  at 
over  a  hundred  clay  factories,  and  the  money  that  is  being 
wasted  in  some  quarters  is  simply  appalling. 

One  branch  of  the  industry  was  investigated  by  the 
United  States  Department  of  Commerce  in  1914-1915. 
The  department's  findings,  summarized  briefly,  are  as  fol- 
lows: 

1.  The  manufacturers  are  without  adequate  knowledge 
of  the   costs  of  production  in  their  own   industry. 

2.  Extreme   variations   prevail   in   different  factories    in 
the  cost  of  production,  the  difference  in  the  cost  of  various 
specific   operations   between   the   minimum   and   maximum 
being  as   follows: 

Labor  Costs  35  per  cent. 

Material    Costs 46  per  cent. 

Kiln    Fuel    66  per  cent. 

General    Expense    294  per  cent. 

Fixed  Charges  551  per  cent. 

3.  Many     factories     are     badly     arranged     and    poorly 
equipped    so    that    repeated    rehandling    of    materials    and 
products    is   necessary  and   economical   routing  extremely 
difficult. 

4.  There  is  a  distinct  need  for  more  scientific  methods 
of  production. 

NOT  A    MATTER   OF   NEW    EQUIPMENT 

There  is  one  other  point  which  the  writer  wishes  to 
make  clear  before  discussing  in  greater  detail  the  ap- 
plication of  Scientific  Management  to  manufacturing.  A 
great  many  men  have  the  idea  that  letting  an  industrial 
engineer  loose  in  a  plant  means  spending  from  ten  to 
fifty  thousands  dollars  for  new  equipment.  This  is  not 


What  Scientific  Management  Means    23 

the  case  at  all.  Anyone  can  cut  costs  by  spending  a  lot  of 
money  for  high-priced  mechanical  handling  devices  and  more 
up-to-date  machines.  The  competent  engineer  recom- 
mends new  equipment  only  as  a  last  resort.  He  may  at 
various  times  present  figures  showing  that  a  new  ma- 
chine would  pay  for  itself  in  three,  six  or  twelve  months, 
but  his  endeavor  always  is  to  make  the  machinery  on 
hand  do  the  work. 

It  has  been  the  experience  of  industrial  engineers,  gen- 
erally, that  factories  in  this  country  are  over-equipped 
and  under-supervised — so  beware  of  the  man  who  begins  by 
recommending  an  immediate  outlay  for  equipment.  Efficiency 
doesn't  mean  a  lot  of  new  machinery.  It  means  first  of  all 
getting  one  hundred  per  cent,  use  out  of  everything  you  have. 

HOW  ECONOMIES  ARE  EFFECTED 

We  have  taken  up  considerable  space  describing  the 
attitude  of  mind  in  which  it  is  necessary  to  approach 
Scientific  Management,  and  have  devoted  some  time  to 
explaining  what  Scientific  Management  is  not.  The  thing 
that  saves  the  money  is  perhaps  best  explained  by  an 
illustration. 

During  the  past  week  the  writer  spent  a  couple  of 
hours  at  a  large  sewer-pipe  plant  which  has  been  operated 
under  Scientific  Management  for  about  a  year.  It  was  a 
hot  day  and  the  official  government  thermometer  was 
ninety-seven  degrees  in  the  shade  so  that  it  must  have 
been  at  least  one  hundred  and  fourteen  degrees  around 
the  kilns.  In  spite  of  this,  the  spirit  of  the  kiln  foreman 
around  the  kiln  which  was  being  salted  was  the  spirit 
of  our  grandfathers  at  a  "barn  raising"  or  of  our  fathers 
at  a  "husking  bee."  While  the  sweat  was  running  pro- 
fusely, there  was  none  of  that  hang-dog,  "wage  slave" 
attitude  we  hear  so  much  about  %from  the  street  corner 
orators.  One  of  the  men  had  brought  over  a  jug  of 
lemonade  and  between  salts  the  trial  pieces  were  dis- 
cussed in  the  shade  of  a  nearby  kiln  with  the  same  spirit 
with  which  the  equal  partners  in  a  business  might  dis- 
cuss a  new  product — and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
one  of  the  firemen  could  hardly  make  himself  under- 
stood on  account  of  his  broken  English.  A  new  method 
of  salting  was  being  tried  out  which  meant  more  work 
for  the  firemen,  but  were  they  sullen  about  it?  Certainly 


24          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

not!  They  were  all  partners  in  the  same  business.  Every 
fireman  on  the  job  knew  that  if  the  new  scheme  suc- 
ceeded the  quality  of  the  pipe  would  be  increased — and 
that  his  wages  would  be  increased  in  exact  proportion — and 
was  doing  his  level  best  to  make  the  experiment  a  success. 
And  there  was  more  than  the  money.  The  system  had  been 
installed  long  enough  so  that  it  was  "the  style"  among  the 
men  at  that  factory  to  take  an  interest  in  the  work,  in- 
stead of  growling  and  shirking. 

When  the  salt  was  finished  the  men  sat  down  in  the 
presence  of  the  superintendent  with  all  the  freedom  they 
would  have  shown  with  each  other  in  their  own  homes. 
They  had  the  right  to  do  so.  They  were  not  serfs  ex- 
pected to  cringe  before  their  superiors,  but  independent 
workers — each  one  set  up  in  business  for  himself  by  the 
bonus  system.  Every  man  was  as  nearly  as  possible  his 
own  boss,  working  for  the  common  end — the  greatest 
quantity  of  pipe  of  the  best  quality,  produced  with  the 
least  coal  and  with  the  least  labor. 

The  more  each  man  saved  the  company,  the  more 
money  he  got  himself.  He  knew  how  his  friends,  who 
were  finishing  other  kilns,  were  doing  and  he  was  striv- 
ing to  beat  them  at  the  game.  A  spirit  of  friendly  rivalry 
brought  added  interest  to  a  hard  day's  work  and  with 
each  pay  day  came  a  substantial  reminder  of  what  his  con- 
scientiousness had  meant  to  the  company. 

ON    THE   OTHER    HAND— 

From  this  plant  I  went  to  the  factory  of  another  com- 
pany— a  concern  known  thruout  a  dozen  states  as  a  busi- 
ness success.  A  truck  holding  three  hundred  brick  was 
being  loaded  from  a  kiln.  There  were  four  men  at  work 
beside  the  man  who  came  for  the  truck.  As  soon  as  these 
men  had  sized  me  up  as  a  salesman  or  something  equally 
harmless,  as  far  as  they  were  concerned,  they  fell  back 
into  their  regular  stride  again.  The  system  was  this: 

As  long  as  the  truckman — who  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  fore- 
man— was  in  sight  all  four  men  kept  moving.  Each  move 
was  deliberate  as  possible,  it  is  true,  but  still  the  motion  was 
fairly  continuous. 

However,  as  soon  as  the  truck  was  loaded  and  removed  by 
the  trucker,  work  stopped.  Two  of  the  men  frankly  came 
outside  of  the  kiln,  sat  doivn  and  rolled  cigarettes.  On  one 


What  Scientific  Management  Means    25 

occasion  when  one  of  the  men  lingered  in  the  kiln  the  other 
cigarette  smoker  cursed  him  freely  for  working  on  a  hot  day. 
As  soon  as  they  could  hear  the  trucker  returning,  they  threw 
away  their  cigarettes,  went  back  into  the  kiln  and  began 
loading  the  empty  truck  which  had  been  left  there.  Mean- 
time the  trucker  had  to  wait  until  the  truck  was  filled.  The 
men  were  obviously  unhappy.  Dodging  the  boss  had  ceased 
to  be  a  novelty,  they  were  plainly  bored  to  death  and  were 
wishing  for  the  dinner  hour — or  anything  to  add  interest  to 
their  existence. 

This  crew  was  not  over  twenty-five  per  cent,  efficient 
as  compared  with  the  first  one  described.  The  labor  was 
costing  the  company  four  times  as  much  as  in  the  first 
case.  The  men  were  dissatisfied  and  were  engaged  in 
systematic  soldiering,  furtive  and  underhand,  of  a  sort 
which  every  hour  it  was  practiced  got  them  more  and 
more  into  the  "wage  slave"  attitude  of  mind,  instead  of 
making  them  honest,  self-respecting  and  proud  of  their 
work. 

These  men  were  not  in  the  least  to  blame.  You  and  I 
would  do  the  same  thing  in  their  circumstances.  They 
were  paid  for  time  served — not  for  work  done,  either 
quantity  or  quality.  Piece  work  might  have  helped  some, 
but  when  rates  are  set  in  the  ordinary  way,  it  is  only 
a  matter  of  time  before  systematic  soldiering  is  just  as 
prevalent  in  piece  work  gangs  as  where  day  work  is  in 
vogue. 

DO    YOU    REALLY    KNOW    WHAT    YOUR    MEN    ARE    DOING? 

You  may  say  that  men  working  in  your  factory  would 
have  been  fired  who  loafed  that  way.  Perhaps  so — 
theoretically.  Remember,  however,  that  a  brick  plant 
making  a  hundred  thousand  brick  a  day  usually  has  one 
superintendent  and  two  or  three  foremen  who  are  not 
working  foremen,  or  gang  leaders.  Suppose  there  are 
four  such  men  altogether  whose  sympathies  are  not  with 
the  men,  as  must  be  the  case  where  the  leader  actually 
works  with  his  crew.  In  such  a  factory  there  are  usually 
at  least  a  hundred  and  sixty  men.  That  makes  forty 
men  to  each  foreman  so  that  each  one  can  devote  be- 
tween thirteen  and  fourteen  minutes  a  day  to  each  of  his 
men.  What  will  each  man  do  the  other  eight  hours  and 
forty-six  minutes  while  the  boss  is  away?  While  each 
foreman  may  not,  strictly  speaking,  have  thirty-nine  men 


26          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

loading  all  the  time,  nevertheless,  when  it  comes  to  a 
trial  of  strength  to  decide  whether  that  foreman  can 
drive  evejy  one  of  his  forty  men  at  one  hundred  per 


A    Piece    Rate   Crew   "At   Work."      This    Picture   Was   Taken 

Before    the    Drawing    of    Kilns    at   This    Particular    Plant 

Had    Been  Standardized,   and  the    Men  Are    Not  on   a 

Bonus.      This  Crew  is   Not  Over  Forty  Per  Cent. 

Efficient.      Note   the   Listless  Attitude  of  the 

Men. 

cent,  efficiency  every  minute  of  the  day  or  whether  each 
man  will  loaf  a  certain  portion  of  the  day,  the  chances 
are  at  least  ten  to  one  that  the  foreman  will  lose,  since 
he  is  not  likely  to  have  more  than  a  quarter  of  his  men 
under  observation  at  any  one  time.  The  writer's  ex- 
perience, at  any  rate,  has  led  him  to  bet  on  the  men. 

WHAT  THE  ILLUSTRATIONS  REPRESENT 

The  first  of  the  accompanying  illustrations  shows  a 
typical  piece  work  crew  "at  work."  This  picture  was 
taken  before  the  drawing  had  been  standardized.  The 
man  at  the  left  is  removing  a  twenty-inch  pipe  from  the 
kiln  while  the  man  on  his  right  is  calmly  waiting  to  roll 
it  away.  This  second  man  is  not  at  all  impatient.  The 
man  waiting  at  his  right  looks  still  more  bored,  while 
the  man  at  the  extreme  right  is  frankly  whiling  away  his 
time  by  whistling.  Out  of  the  five  men  in  the  picture, 
two  men  are  at  work,  so  that  at  the  moment  the  picture 
was  taken  the  crew  was  working  forty  per  cent,  effi- 
cient. 


What  Scientific  Management  Means    27 

The  question,  of  course,  at  once  arises  as  to  why — 
since  this  crew  was  on  piece  work — all  of  the  men  were 
not  doing  their  best  to  earn  as  much  as  possible.  To 
the  industrial  engineer  the  answer  is  obvious.  In  the 
first  place,  the  piece  rates  had  not  been  established  by 
means  of  the  analytical  time  study.  In  consequence,  the 
exact  number  of  men  which  would  do  the  work  to  the 
best  advantage  had  not  been  determined.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  the  proper  sort  of  equipment  had  not  been 
provided.  In  the  third  place,  the  men  knew  that  if  they 
let  themselves  out  they  could  make  such  large  wages 
that  their  rate  would  be  cut  in  which  case  they  would 
have  to  work  harder  to  earn  the  same  money.  In  the 
fourth  place,  they  had  not  been  taught  to  use  them- 
selves and  their  equipment  to  the  best  advantage. 

MEN   THAT    ENJOY   THEIR    WORK 

The  second  picture  shows  part  of  the  setting  crew  at 
work.  Needless  to  say  these  men  are  on  bonus.  You 
can  almost  see  them  hustle — and  they  are  enjoying  every 


This  Crew  is  on  a   Bonus  and  Their  Work  Has  Been  Stand- 
ardized.     No   Listlessness   Here.      These  Men   Have   Been 
Set    Up    in     Business    for    Themselves    and    Are    En- 
joying   the    Work    Thoroly 

minute  of  it.  They  know  that  the  more  quickly  they  do 
the  work  the  more  money  they  will  make  and  they  are 
"going  after  it"  for  all  they  are  worth.  The  equipment 
they  are  using  has  been  standardized.  Everything  is  in 


28          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

smooth  running  order  and  experts  have  figured  out  the 
most  advantageous  way  of  doing  the  work,  and  have 
taught  each  individual  workman  just  how  to  do  the  most 
work  with  the  least  wear  and  tear  on  himself.  The  photo- 
graph speaks  for  itself.  The  men  haven't  even  time  to 
watch  the  photographer. 

The  two  pictures  tell  the  whole  story.  Which  com- 
pany will  have  the  lowest  cost  of  production  and  make 
the  most  money — the  one  whose  men  are  soldiering,  who 
do  not  care  how  much  ware  they  spoil,  who  are  dissat- 
isfied with  their  work,  who  regard  themselves  as  "wage 
slaves"  and  strike  at  the  first  opportunity  (often  just  for 
the  excitement  of  the  thing),  or  the  company  which  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  standardize  its  equipment,  to  scien- 
tifically plan  the  work  and  to  split  with  their  men  the 
fruits  of  more  efficient  operation  by  means  of  some  sys- 
tem of  bonus,  with  rewards  in  exact  proportion  to  ac- 
complishment? 


CHAPTER  III 


The  Analytical  Time  Study 

T)  EFORE  it  can  be  determined  just  how  much  work  each 
J-*  man  should  do,  it  is  necessary  to  make  it  possible  for 
him  to  do  his  best.  A  workman  whose  tools  are  inadequate, 
whose  machine  is  continually  breaking  down  or  being  shut 
down  for  lack  of  power,  or  who,  every  little  while,  has  to 
wait  for  material,  is  not  in  a  position  to  let  himself  out, 
even  if  he  desired  to  make  a  record. 

Furthermore,  under  the  ordinary  systems  of  payment  the 
workman  does  not  particularly  care  whether  his  work  is 
interrupted  or  not.  It  is  much  easier  to  sit  down  and  wait 
while  the  machine  is  repaired  by  someone  else  or  to 
"assist"  the  regular  repair  crew  than  it  is  to  work.  A  case 
in  point  was  that  of  a  press  feeder — a  boy  of  no  great  sense 
of  responsibility  who,  when  his  job  got  monotonous,  used 
to  drop  a  bolt  into  the  feed-chute.  As  a  result  the  press 
would  be  shut  down  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  while  the 
die  was  removed  and  the  bolt  taken  out.  Meantime, 
the  boy  had  a  rest,  enjoying  the  change  in  the  activity 
of  those  about  him  and,  incidentally,  the  picturesque 
language  of  the  foreman.  It  took  nearly  a  month  to  place 
the  blame  in  this  particular  instance  and,  during  that 
time,  several  thousand  dollars  output  was  lost  which 
reckoned  in  lost  profits,  or  even  in  wages  spent  for  use- 
less work,  amounted  to  considerable.  //  the  company  had 
made  it  to  that  boy's  financial  interest  to  do  his  part  in  in- 
suring the  continuous  operation  of  that  press,  this  loss  would 
have  been  avoided,  beyond  a  doubt. 

No  matter  how  great  a  workman's  sense  of  responsibility, 
he  reaches  the  "O  what's  the  use?"  stage  very  quickly 
where  interruptions  are  frequent.  Why  should  he  try  to 
break  the  record  when  just  at  the  height  of  the  race  some- 
thing over  which  he  has  no  control — some  belt  or  some  steam 
connection — breaks  and  nullifies  his  whole  effort.  Any  way 

29 


30          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


you  look  at  it,  breakdowns  are  discouraging  and,  unless  you 
give  the  workman  a  chance  by  reducing  interruptions  to  a 
minimum  (a  bonus  to  the  repair  crew  is  pretty  good  in- 
surance), you  cannot  expect  him  to  do  his  best. 

HOW   ATTENTION   TO    DETAILS   REDUCED    DELAYS 

Chart  I  furnishes  an  example  of  the  reduction  in  delays 
brought  about  by  attention  to  machine  details  and  by  plac- 
ing the  crews  on  bonus  in  a  large  brick  plant.  At  the  time 
the  record  was  instituted  about  a  month's  standardization 


301, 


10% 


ool 

Hours 


20.00 


10.00 


.00 


June 
^4 


July 


Aug. 
5 


Per  Cent 
Working 
Hours  Shui  Down 


Hours 
Delay' 


Chart    1.      Showing     Reduction     in     Delays    Effected    in    the 
Machine   Room    of   a    Large    Brick    Plant   by   Stand- 
ardization and  by  Placing  the  Crew  on  Bonus 

had  been  done.  It  will  be  noted  that  during  the  subsequent 
four  weeks  the  reduction  in  delays  was  continuous  and  that 
the  shutdowns  decreased  over  sixty  per  cent. — from  four- 
teen hours  a  week  to  less  than  five. 

In  addition  to  the  elimination  of  delays  there  is  a  large 
field  for  the  competent  engineer  in  the  improvement  of  tools 
and  equipment.  In  many  cases,  study  of  the  workman's 
accessories  discloses  the  fact  that  the  implements  handed 
down  for  generations  and  stamped  with  approval  by 
"experience"  are  totally  unfitted  for  the  work  which  they 


Analytical  Time  Study  31 

are  expected  to  do.  There  is  certainly  no  more  vener- 
able and  ancient  trade  than  bricklaying  and  yet  Gilbreth, 
by  the  use  of  the  fountain  trowel  and  by  making  a 
scientific  study  of  the  workmen's  motions,  eliminated  two- 
thirds  of  the  motions  as  unnecessary,  cut  the  work  two-thirds 
and  enabled  union  men  to  average  three  hundred  and  fifty 
brick  per  hour  instead  of  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

The  work  must  be  studied  from  the  purely  analytical 
viewpoint,  freed  for  the  moment  from  the  blinders  of 
tradition,  until  every  obstruction  which  may  prevent  the 
worker  performing  his  task  in  the  easiest,  the  quickest 
and  the  best  way  is  removed.  Under  no  other  circumstances 
have  you  a  right  to  expect  your  men  to  do  their  utmost. 

THE   ANALYTICAL   TIME   STUDY 

After  the  machines,  the  tools,  the  delivery  of  material 
and  the  removal  of  the  finished  product  have  been  standard- 
ized, in  other  words,  after  you  have  given  the  workman  a 
fair  chance,  you  must  teach  him  to  use  what  he  has  to  the 
best  advantage  and  to  do  his  work  in  the  best  way — the 
easiest  way  for  him  and  the  one  which  will  result  in  the 
largest  dividends  for  the  stockholders  of  the  company. 

Since  one  man  was  set  over  another,  to  see  that  he  labored 
conscientiously  and  well,  motion  study  has  been  going  on. 
You  are  all  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  Irish  section  boss 
who  so  far  forgot  himself  at  a  funeral  as  to  order  two  of 
the  pallbearers  to  "lave  that  coffin  be  and  come  over  here — 
four  of  yez  is  enough  to  carry  it,"  and  with  the  tale  of  that 
other  son  of  Erin  who,  on  calling  down  into  the  excavation 
and  finding  that  three  men  were  digging  there,  bellowed 
down  the  order  for  "half  of  yez  to  cum  up  out  o'  that!'' 

It  may  be  a  far  cry  from  the  instinctive  sizing  up  of  the 
right  number  of  men  to  handle  a  job  by  the  Irish  boss  to 
the  highly  technical  motion  study  of  the  expert  made  with 
the  cinematigraphic  camera  and  the  stop  watch.  The  prin- 
ciple, however,  is  the  same  and  consists  in  the  solution  of 
the  question :  How  can  this  man  best  do  the  work,  with 
the  least  wear  and  tear  on  himself,  with  the  least  waste  of 
material  and  with  the  least  expenditure  of  time,  so  that  the 
final  result  will  be  the  finest  possible  product  at  the  least 
possible  cost? 

An  explanation  of  just  how  to  make  a  motion  study  is 
just  about  as  easy  to  formulate,  and  about  as  easy  to  under- 
stand, as  an  explanation  by  an  artist  of  just  how  to  paint  a 


32          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

picture  would  be  to  one  who  had  never  seen  a  painting. 
There  are  numerous  articles,  and  even  whole  books  on  the 
subject,  but  the  analytical  time  study  is  a  thing  that  must  be 
done  to  be  understood.  Furthermore,  there  is  no  limit  to 
skill  which  may  be  developed  or  to  the  results  which  may 
be  attained  any  more  than  there  is  in  sculpture  or  in  paint- 
ing. The  conscientious  man,  not  over-equipped  with  im- 
agination, ingenuity  and  inVentiveness,  may  learn  to  handle 
a  stop  watch  skillfully  and  obtain  satisfactory  results — the 
genius  will  revolutionize  an  industry. 

A    BRIEF    EXPLANATION    OF    MOTION    STUDY 

Briefly,  the  process  consists  in  timing  every  motion  of  the 
workman  with  a  stop  watch  arranged  to  register  the  hun- 
dredths  of  a  minute,  and  of  recording  these  motions.  The 
problem  is  then  studied  analytically,  the  useless  motions  are 
eliminated  and  the  worker  is  taught  to  secure  the  desired 
result  with  the  fewest  possible  movements.  In  the  course 
of  this  work  new  crevices  are  often  introduced  and  new 
processes  invented.  A  time  study  may  take  fifteen  minutes — 
or  fifteen  days — depending  upon  the  intricacy  of  the  process 
and  the  economies  which  are  likely  to  result  from  the  solu- 
tion of  certain  problems. 

We  have  seen  what  was  accomplished  in  bricklaying.  The 
man  who  did  that  work  wrote  a  book  describing  just  how  the 
studies  were  made.  Some  time  the  writer  may  attempt  to 
explain  the  methods  of  making  time  studies  in  a  clay  plant, 
but  such  an  explanation  would  be  too  long  and  too  com- 
plicated for  a  book  of  this  sort.  The  general  rule  is, 
find  out  how  long  each  class  of  work  is  taking  by  dividing 
it  into  its  elements.  Recor'd  the  time  of  each  element. 
Classify  the  elements  into  necessary  and  unnecessary 
movements.  Eliminate  the  unnecessary.  Improve  the 
process  as  your  knowledge  and  ingenuity  and  the  knowl- 
edge, ingenuity  and  experience  of  those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  work,  suggests.  Reduce  the  final  decision  as  to 
the  best  way  to  do  the  work,  to  writing.  Show  the 
workmen  how  to  follow  these  instructions,  and  make  it 
worth  their  while  to  follow  them  to  the  letter. 

Until  you  have  done  this,  you  will  never  know  how 
much  useless  work  is  going  on  about  the  plant,  how  much 
the  men  are  handicapped  in  their  work  and  how  much 
more  work  can  be  done  with  less  fatigue  to  the  worker 
and  with  increased  profit  to  the  firm. 


Analytical  Time  Study 


33 


THE     BONUS    REWARD 

Inasmuch  as  you  are  going  to  expect  the  workman  to 
learn  new  methods  and  to  follow  instructions  to  the  let- 
ter, you  must  reward  him  for  his  trouble  and  pay  him 


Scene     in     the     Oil     House    of    the     Ordinary     Plant.       Note 
Condition  of   Drip  Pan  and   Pool   of  Oil   on  the  Floor 


34          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

in  proportion  to  his  effort  and  accomplishment,  both  as 
to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  his  work.  There  are 
numerous  systems  of  paying  a  bonus,  all  of  which  have 
their  good  points.  The  important  thing  to  do,  however, 
is  to  select  the  system  which  exactly  fits  the  situation  in 
question.  Labor  differs  in  various  sections  of  the  coun- 
try and  a  system  which  would  incite  one  type  of  work- 
man to  do  his  best  might  not  interest  another  at  all.  The 
local  labor  situation  must  be  studied  and  a  plan  selected 
which  will  strike  the  employe  as  fair  and  which  will  induce 
him  to  do  his  best  to  attain  the  standard  set. 

As  an  example  of  a  practical  and  widely  used  bonus  sys- 
tem, the  Emerson  system  may  be  eked.  This  pays  the  work- 
man according  to  his  degree  of  attainment  of  the  standard 
set  according  to  the  following  formula  and  table : 

Standard   Hours 

=  Efficiency. 


Actual  Hours 

TABLE 

Per  Cent.  Per  Cent. 

Efficiency  Bonus  Efficiency  Bonus 

67  .005  91  .11 

73  .01  92  .12 

76  .02  93  .13 

79  .03  94  .14 

82  .04  95  .15 

84  .05  96  .16 

86  .06  97  .17 

87  .07  98  .18 

88  .08  99  .19 

89  .09  100  .20 

90  .10 

Under  this  system  then,  if  a  certain  operation,  such  as 
drawing  a  kiln  of  brick,  was  standardized  at  eight  hours  and 
the  crew  drew  it  in  nine  hours  the  formula  would  be  filled 
in -as  follows: 

8  Hours — Standard 

-    =    88    per    cent.    Efficient. 

9  Hours —   Actual 

and  the  members  of  the  drawing  crew  would  each  receive 
.08  or  eight  per  cent,  of  their  wages  as  a  bonus  for  doing 
the  work  in  the  above  mentioned  time,  in  addition  to  their 
regular  pay. 


Analytical  Time  Study 


35 


In  some  cases  it  is  desirable  to  arrange  the  bonus  to  dis- 
courage absences,  and  so  forth,  as  well  as  to  reward  for  the 
accomplishment  of  a  standard  quantity  and  quality  of  work 


A    Standardized    Oil    House.      In    Excavating    for    the    New 

Floor,    Several    Barrels    of    Oil    Oozed    Out    of    the 

Surrounding    Soil,    Which,    Owing    to    a    Long 

Continued  State  of  the  Conditions  Shown 

in  the   Preceding   Picture,   Had    Become 

Thoroly  Saturated.     Hundreds  of 

Dollars    Gone   to   Waste 


36          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

in  a  given  time.  Details  must  be  varied  to  suit  conditions, 
but  the  principle  remains  the  same,  namely :  Reward  in  exact 
proportion  to  accomplishment,  so  that  the  workman  is  bene- 
fited in  dollars  whenever  he  increases  the  firm's  return  on 
its  investment.  The  principle  is  as  applicable  to  gang  work 


These  "Wheelers"    Are    Not   on   a    Bonus.      At   the  Time  the 
Picture  was  Taken,  the   Kiln   Was  Two-thirds   Filled  With 
Brick,    Customers    Were    Clamoring    for    Early    Ship- 
ment, and  the   Room   in   the   Kiln   Was  Needed   to 
Operate    the     Plant    at    Full    Capacity.       Yet 
These    Seven    Men,    Working    Under    the 
Piece-rate    System,     Felt    They     Had 
Time   for  a    "Tea    Party" 

as  to  the  individual  workman,  as  the  following  tabulation 
shows,  which  gives  the  attainment  of  various  crews  secured 
in  a  recent  installation  of  the  system  approximately  five 
months  after  the  standards  were  set: 

Crews                                 Per  Cent  Efficiency  Annual  Economy 

Press    92.5  $  5,950.00 

Setting    105.0  5,000.00 

Drawing    92.0  2,000.00 

Shipping    117.0  12,650.00 

To  summarize — the  manufacturer  who  is  progressive,  who 
has  faith,  who  is  prepared  to  give  his  employes  a  square  deal 
and  who  can  convince  them  of  that  fact,  is  in  a  position  to 
benefit  his  employes,  to  advance  himself  and  to  increase  the 
dividends  of  his  stockholders.  Labor  troubles  can  be  reduced, 


Analytical  Time  Study  37 

guess  work  eliminated  and  management  reduced  to  an  exact 
science.  All  this  requires  patience  and  application  but  the 
results  are  far  reaching  and  are  well  worthy  of  attainment. 


CHAPTER  IV 


Centralized  Control 

TT7HEN    KIPLING    VISITED    AMERICA    in    1889    his 

*  ^    comment  upon  the  conduct  of  affairs  m  general  was : 

"There  is  considerably  too  much  guessing  about  this  large 

nation.    As  one  of  them  put  it  rather  forcibly,    'We  guess  a 

trestle  will  stand  forever,  and  we  guess  that  we  can  patch 

up  a  washout  on  the  track,  and  we  guess  the  road's  clear 

— and  sometimes  we  guess  ourselves  into  the  depot,  and 

sometimes  we  guess  ourselves  into  Hell.' " 

DARING  HAS  HAD  A  LARGE   PART  IN  SUCCESS 

In  the  past  the  American  business  man's  willingness  to 
take  a  chance  has  been  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  his  suc- 
cess. Conservatism  does  not  plunge  into  the  wilderness, 
face  unknown  dangers  and  return  to  civilization  with  the 
prizes  of  the  forest  and  of  the  mine.  Until  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  the  pioneer  has  been  pre-eminent  and  it  has 
been  the  man  with  courage,  with  daring  sufficient  to  take 
a  chance — and  often  a  very  long  chance — who  has  succeeded. 
We,  who  have  remained  in  civilization,  never  hear  of  the 
nine  hundred  men  who  played  ten  to  one  shots  and  whose 
bones  lie  in  the  mountains  of  California  or  under  the  gla- 
ciers of  Alaska.  It  is  the  hundred  successful  men — the  men 
who  play  the  ten  to  one  shot  and  win — who  come  back  to 
the  cities  and,  riding  in  motor  cars  and  building  palaces  on 
Fifth  avenue,  advertise  the  results  of  daring.  It  is  not 
unnatural  then  that  "nerve"  has  come  to  be  at  a  premium. 
This  was  right,  and  as  it  should  be  as  long  as  the  country 
possessed  vast  tracts  of  undeveloped  territory  waiting  for 
the  pioneer.  Since  the  beginning  of  this  century,  however, 
the  effect  of  the  change  in  conditions  has  become  evident 
very  rapidly.  California  long  ago  put  up  the  notice  of  "No 
Pioneers  Wanted"  and  Alaska  is  getting  to  the  point  where 
she  will  soon  hang  out  a  sign  reading  "Standing  Room  Only." 

38 


Centralized  Control 


39 


Methods  which  succeeded  in  the  last  century — the.  cut  and 
slash  methods  of  the  pioneer,  the  recklessness  which  continu- 
ally takes  the  long  chance,  running  the  railroad  or  the  factory 
by  guess — must  vanish  into  oblivion  with  those  picturesque 
features  of  the  past,  with  the  red  shirt  of  the  "Forty-niner" 
and  the  Indian  dug-out  of  Puget  Sound.  A  new  set  of  con- 
ditions has  arisen,  and  those  who  survive  must  be  prepared 
to  meet  them. 

The  time  was  when  a  lucky  guesser  could  run  a  manu- 


The    Despatch    Office — The    Home    of    Centralized    Control — 

Which  Keeps  the  Superintendent  in  Touch  with  Every 

Detail   of  the   Business,  With  the   Least 

Demand   Upon    His  Time 

facturing  plant  successfully  in  almost  any  part  of  the 
country.  Harriman  once  said: 

"If  you  will  guarantee  that  I  will  guess  right  fifty-one 
per  cent,  of  the  time,  I  will  own  the  world  in  ten  years." 

Lots  of  factories  are  conducted  on  just  that  principle 
and,  if  they  happen  to  be  in  a  part  of  the  country  where 
competition  is  at  all  keen,  they  are  not  paying  dividends.  An 
exact  knowledge  of  just  what  is  being  done,  and  of  just 
how  near  that  is  to  the  best  that  can  be  done,  is  essential  at 
all  times  if  the  superintendent  is  to  operate  the  factory 
in  such  a  way  that  his  cost  of  production  will  remain  at 
the  lowest  possible  level,  if  the  general  manager  is  to  main- 
tain the  greatest  margin  between  cost  and  sales  price  and, 


40          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

if     the     president    is    to    convey  to  his  stockholders  the  full 
dividend  to  which  they  are  entitled. 

CENTRALIZED  CONTROL 

When  the  writer  made  his  first  great  jump,  cutting  loose 
from  the  factory  where  he  had  served  his  apprenticeship 
with  friends,  and  took  charge  of  a  plant  which  he  was  ex- 
pected to  run  without  assistance  from  anyone,  he  naturally 
received  several  pretty  severe  jolts.  In  the  first  place,  he 
found  that  previous  superintendents  had  had  no  place  which 
they  could  call  their  own — no  office,  no  desk,  not  even  a  table. 
They  were  evidently  expected  to  go  on  and  on,  and  never  to 
possess  'a  place  to  rest  their  head  or  the  soles  of  their  feet. 
The  writer's  predecessor,  he  was  told,  carried  his  papers  in 
his  vest  pocket  the  first  few  months  he  was  in  control  and, 
the  last  few  months  of  his  stay,  slept  off  his  previous  night's 
"jag"  every  morning  on  a  bench  in  the  boiler  room. 

Inasmuch  as  the  writer  had  a  trunk  full  of  engineering 
data,  he  didn't  fancy  the  vest-pocket-office  plan  and  one  trial 
of  the  boiler  room  bench,  which  was  infested  with  fleas,  con- 
vinced him  that  rest  there  would  cost  him  more  whisky  than 
he  could  at  that  time  afford.  He,  therefore,  started  in  on 
a  campaign  of  reform  which  very  nearly  cost  him  his  job. 
He  demanded  a  desk,  a  private  office  and  a  time-keeper  who 
could  use  a  typewriter.  Such  unheard  of  affrontery  and  ex- 
travagance was  at  first  looked  upon  as  ruinous. 

A  little  later  he  asked  for  copies  of  the  factory  cost  sheets. 
He  was  promptly  told  that  the  costs  were  one  of  the  firm's 
secrets — that  they  didn't  propose  to  have  them  become  public 
property.  He  as  promptly  told  the  firm  that,  in  that  case,  his 
resignation  was  at  their  disposal — that  he  didn't  propose  to 
be  judged,  and  perhaps  damned,  by  a  set  of  figures  which  he 
never  saw. 

This  was  perhaps  strong  talk  for  a  youngster  of  twenty- 
four,  but  its  justification  lies  in  the  fact  that,  within  eighteen 
months,  several  other  superintendents  of  the  old  office-in- 
their-vest-pocket  variety  were  furnished  desks  voluntarily  by 
the  firm,  were  ordered  to  send  in  a  letter  at  least  every  two 
days  covering  operating  conditions  and  were  handed  copies 
of  the  costs  each  month  with  the  request  that  they  furnish 
the  management  a  complete  written  analysis  of  the  reason 
for  fluctuations. 

'Subsequently,  in  traveling  about  the  country,  the  writer 
found  that  the  vest-pocket  office  system,  which  forces  admin- 
istration by  foot  work  rather  than  by  head  work,  was  by  no 


Centralized  Control  41 

means  uncommon,  especially  where  the  glorified  foreman 
type,  rather  than  the  factory  manager  type  of  plant  ex- 
ecutive, was  encouraged  by  the  supreme  authority  in  the 
firm.  Under  the  former  system  factory  management  by 
guess  can  only  be  expected. 

A   CHEAP    MAN    DOES   CHEAP   WORK 

The  efficient  management  of  a  factory  employing 
two  or  three  hundred  men  is  a  big  job,  and  the  firm 
which  turns  over  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  dollars' 


"Unscientific  Management  in  a  Staffordshire   (England)   Pot- 
tery.     It    Will    Be    Noted    That    the    Work    Is    So    Poorly 
Planned   and   Despatched  That   Four   Employes   Have 
Nothing   to    Do   Until   the  One   at  the   Right   Fin- 
ishes His  Task.      Efficiency   in  This  Instance, 
Therefore,    Is   Twenty    Per   Cent  or    Less 

worth  of  machinery,  buildings  and  kilns  to  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollar  a  month  man,  with  no  assistance  other 
than  his  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollar  brains,  ex- 
perience and  courage  and  expects  him  to  earn  them 
forty  or  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  by  running  foot 
races  all  over  the  plant,  usually  earns  what  it  deserves 
to  earn.  Regardless  of  what  a  firm  pays  a  man,  however, 
they  should  strive  to  make  it  easier  for  him  to  do  what 
he  should  do,  than  what  he  should  not  do.  If  they  want 
him  to  use  his  feet  principally  and  to  spend  his  time  rush- 
ing around  from  one  crew  to  another  they  should  insist 
on  the  vest-pocket  office.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they 


42          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

realize  that  no  matter  how  good  a  foot  racer  he  is,  he 
can  be  with  each  crew  only  a  fraction  of  his  time,  and 
while  he  is  with  that  crew  ten  or  fifteen  other  gangs 


An  Example  of  the  Lack  of  Proper  Planning  and  Despatching. 
The  Work  for  Which  This  Crew  Was  Assembled  Was  Not 
Ready  for  it  Upon  Arrival  at  the  Job.     Conse- 
quently,  Seven    Men   are   Standing   Idle 

have  an  opportunity  to  loaf;  if  they  want  him  to  spend  a 
portion  of  his  time  comparing  what  each  crew  did  yes- 
terday with  what  it  did  the  day  before  and  a  year  ago, 
and  devising  ways  and  means  to  repeat  star  performances 
and  to  avoid  past  failures;  if  they  want  him  to  use  his 
head  rather  than  his  legs,  they  should  insist  upon  the 
superintendent  having  a  place  to  which  he  can  retire  and, 
in  peace  and  quiet,  consider  ways  and  means  of  reducing 
his  costs,  improving  the  quality  of  his  product  and  in- 
creasing the  firm's  earnings. 

What  a  superintendent  does,  once  he  has  retired  to  his 
office,  depends,  of  course,  upon  his  nature  and  the  as- 
sistance or  training  he  is  given.  He  may  withdraw  to  his 
office  to  smoke  cigarettes,  deeming  it  more  safely  re- 
moved from  the  eagle  eye  of  the  general  manager,  or  he 
may  use  it  as  a  center  from  which  to  control  every  detail 
of  the  business.  This  brings  us  to  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant principles  of  Scientific  Management,  variously 
known  as  Planning  and  Despatching  or  Centralized  Control. 


Centralized  Control  43 

A    DETAILED    EXPOSITION     OF    CENTRALIZED    CONTROL 

The  Despatch  Office  is  the  home  of  the  apparatus  which 
shows  the  superintendent  at  all  times  just  what  is  being  ac- 
complished in  each  department  and  just  how  nearly  this  ap- 
proaches the  standard  of  what  should  be  accomplished.  This 
apparatus  is  so  arranged  as  to  "make  a  big  fuss,"  as  it  were, 
immediately  when  anything  goes  wrong.  In  the  dark  ages 
Nature  provided  babies  with  strong  lungs,  so  that  they  would 
not  be  neglected  when  in  need  of  attention.  At  other  times 
the  mother  was  free  to  clean  out  the  cave,  tend  the  fire  or 
cultivate  the  garden  patch  with  a  crooked  stick.  This  was 
efficiency.  The  mother  could  feel  perfectly  sure  baby  was  all 
right  so  long  as  he  did  not  howl  and  could  go  ahead  with 
her  other  tasks.  The  moment  baby  needed  attention  he  got 
it — right  away. 

Very  well,  we  want  our  superintendent  to  be  free  to 
study  his  technical  problems — how  to  increase  first  quality 


More    "Unscientific     Management"    in    Staffordshire.       Not* 

That  the  Runner's  Work   is  So   Poorly  Planned   That  He 

Must  Stand   and    Hold  the   Mold   Until  the  Presser   is 

Ready  for  It 


ware,  how  to  change  his  paving-brick  mix  to  decrease  his 
rattler  loss,  how  to  handle  his  fires  to  increase  tfee  bright- 
ness of  his  sewer-pipe  glaze,  how  to  keep  his  big  fire-brick 
shapes  from  cracking  in  the  drying.  His  are  the  best  paid 


44          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

and  so,  presumably,  the  best  brains  about  the  factory  and 
should,  if  freed  from  unimportant  detail,  be  best  able  to 
solve  or  plan  the  solution  of  these  important  problems. 
Moreover,  when  something  goes  wrong — something  which 
will  interfere  with  the  operation  of  the  plant,  decrease 
the  output  and  send  the  costs  up — then  he  should  be  notified, 
and  notified  at  once.  If  the  only  interruptions  to  plant  out- 
put were  perfectly  obvious  matters  like  boiler  explosions,  for 
instance,  the  superintendent  would  need  little  equipment  to 
realize  what  was  happening  and  to  rush  up  with  the  best 
remedy  possible. 

EFFICIENCY    OF    KILN    LOADING 

Unfortunately,  however,  while  many  of  the  diseases  of 
clay  plant  operation  are  much  more  subtle  than  boiler  ex- 
plosions, they  are  none  the  less  just  as  dangerous.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  matter  of  kiln  loading.  Every  good  super- 
intendent knows  that  it  takes  about  so  much  coal  (practi- 
cally, even  if  not  .theoretically)  to  burn  a  kiln  of  ware  an 
hour — say  on  high  fire — regardless  of  whether  that  kiln  is 
loaded  to  seventy  or  ninety  per  cent,  of  capacity.  If  it  takes 
a  ton  of  coal  to  burn  a  thousand  brick  when  the  kiln  is 
loaded  to  capacity,  it  will  take  very  nearly  as  much  coal  to 
burn  the  same  kiln  the  same  length  of  time  loaded  to  ninety 
or  seventy  per  cent,  capacity.  If  the  kiln  holds  100,000  brick 
loaded  to  capacity  (which  would  represent  the  carefully  de- 
termined standard),  it  would  require  100  tons  of  coal  to  burn 
it  off.  If  the  kiln  continued  100,000  brick,  the  coal  per  thou- 
sand would  amount  to  1.00  tons.  If  it  contained  90,000  brick, 
the  coal  per  thousand  would  amount  to  1.11  tons.  If  it  con- 
tained 70,000  brick,  the  coal  per  thousand  would  amount  to 
1.42  tons.  If  your  plant  capacity  is  50,000,000  brick  a  year 
and  coal  costs  $1.50  per  ton,  it  costs  you  $.46  a  thousand  or 
$23,250  more  per  year  if  you  are  getting  only  seventy  per 
cent,  of  standard  in  your  kilns  instead  of  ninety  per  cent. 
In  other  words,  if  your  "Efficiency  of  Kiln  Loading"  is  sev- 
enty instead  of  ninety  per  cent.,  you  are  throwing  away  more 
than  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year.  How  many  superin- 
tendents know  every  time  a  kiln  is  set  just  how  nearly  it  Is 
loaded  to  capacity,  in  figures  which  cannot  be  mistaken? 

DRIER   TURNOVER 

Another  example :  A  great  many  sewer-pipe  and  fire-brick 
plants  have  insufficient  drying  space  when  operated  in  the 
usual  way.  Consequently,  they  are  the  greater  part  of  the 


Centralized  Control 


45 


time  either  cracking  ware  by  putting  the  heat  on  it  too  soon, 
which  means  a  heavy  floor  loss,  or  they  are  setting  "green" 
ware,  which  means  either  a  longer  burning  time  with  in- 
creased coal  consumption  or  heavy  loss  in  the  kilns,  or  both. 
Merchants  have  what  they  call  their  "annual  turnover," 

I  l»Qut  &Q»    Kilns  in  July 
1915    krsm  arier    If,  8  3  G  10  18  14  2   I    7  II  3  15  5  13  4  I?  (6  8  9 


KILN    TURNOVER 
CONTROL  GRAPH 


Control   Graph   Showing    Reduction    in  the    Number  of   Hours 
Covering    Kiln   Turnover    in    the    Burning   and    Cooling 
Periods.    This  Was  Brought  About  in  Four  Months 
Thru  the  Application  of  the  Principles   De- 
scribed   in  the   Accompanying   Article 

which  refers  to  the  number  of  times  they  "turn,"  or  com- 
pletely dispose  of  their  stock  each  year.  The  more  often  a 
merchant  can  so  turn  his  stock,  the  more  money  he  can 
make  on  a  given  amount  of  capital  invested.  Thus,  if  he 
has  $10,000  invested  in  groceries  on  which  he  makes  ten 
per  cent,  every  time  he  sells  his  whole  stock,  he  makes  $1,000. 


46          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

If  he  sells  this  stock  three  times  a  year,  he  makes  $3,000.  If 
he  sells  it  four  times,  he  makes  $4,000  on  the  same  invest- 
ment of  $10,000.00.  The  same  law  applies  to  fire-brick,  sewer- 
pipe  and  other  floor-dried  products.  The  quicker  you  can 
get  them  out  of  your  shop,  the  quicker  you  get  your  money 
(payroll,  material  expense,  etc.)  out  of  it,  and  the  more 
quickly  you  can  put  something  new  in  its  place,  the  more 
times  you  can  turn  your  capital  and  the  larger  are  your  net 
profits. 

It  is  essential,  therefore,  that  the  superintendent  know 
what  his  floor  turnover  is  at  all  times  and  how  nearly  he  is 
approaching  standard  both  in  total  floor  turnover  and  in 
turnover  on  each  class  of  product. 

KILN    TURNOVER 

In  a  later  chapter  we  will  go  into  the  importance  of 
keeping  the  burning  time  as  short  as  possible  and  the  econ- 
omies in  coal  consumption  effected  by  so  doing.  In  addition 
to  this  saving  the  principle  stated  in  the  preceding  paragraph 
also  applies,  so  that  there  is  an  additional  reason  for  keep- 
ing down  the  kiln  turnover.  Where  a  plant  is  short  on  kiln 
capacity  a  reduction  in  kiln  turnover  (or,  in  other  words,  the 
burning  time)  often  saves  the  investment  of  thousands 
of  dollars  in  new  kilns. 

About  a  year  ago,  the  writer  spent  a  week  investigat- 
ing conditions  in  a  plant  which  was  making  60,000  brick 
per  day,  burning  them  in  twenty-six  kilns,  which  had  cost 
about  $225,000  to  erect.  They  were  contemplating  in- 
creasing their  output  to  90,000  per  day  and  the  superin- 
tendent told  me  that  the  only  way  they  could  do  it  was 
to  build  more  kilns,  as  the  kilns  were  the  limiting  factor. 
An  analysis  of  conditions  proved-  that  certain  changes 
in  the  kilns  and  methods  of  burning  would  make  it 
possible  to  increase  the  capacity  to  90,000  without  erect- 
ing a  single  new  kiln,  that  the  expenditure  of  $112,500 
for  thirteen  new  kilns  was  wholly  unnecessary.  A  knowledge 
of  that  factory's  standard  kiln  turnover  would  have  been 
very  much  worth  while  to  that  company.  Yet  how  many 
superintendents  know  exactly  what  their  kiln  turnover  is 
averaging  at  all  times  and  just  what  percentage  that  is  of 
the  lowest  practicable  or  standard  turnover? 

TYPICAL    INSTANCES   OF   WHAT  A   SUPERINTENDENT 
SHOULD    KNOW,    BUT  OFTEN    DOES    NOT 

These  three  instances — "Efficiency  of  Kiln  Loading,"  "Drier 
Turnover"  and  "Kiln  Turnover" — are  cited  as  typical  in- 


Centralized  Control  47 

stances  of  what  a  superintendent  should  know,  but  very 
often  does  not  know.  There  are  any  number  of  matters 
quite  as  important,  the  exact  status  of  which  should  be 
brought  to  his  attention  frequently  and  forcibly,  if  he  is  to 
operate  the  factory  at  its  greatest  possible  effectiveness.  This 
brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  how  the  usual  superintend- 
ent of  a  large  factory  with  innumerable  and  unavoidable 
demands  upon  his  time  can  possibly  find  time  to  figure  out 
such  a  lot  of  things  every  day  no  matter  how  important  a 
factor  the  information  is  in  the  efficient  operation  of  the 
plant. 

The  answer  is  that  he  doesn't  have  time — and  he  would 
be  doing  himself  and  the  company  a  grievous  wrong  if  he 
took  the  time.  When  Frank  Gilbreth  laid  out  bricklayers' 
work  so  that  they  were  free  to  put  all  their  time  on  the  work 
for  which  they  received  high  pay — namely  laying  brick  in 
the  wall —  he  hired  unskilled  and  cheaper  men  to  do  the  sort- 
ing and  to  so  place  the  brick  that  the  masons  didn't  have  to 
carry  them  to  the  wall.  When  he  taught  his  laborers  to  de- 
liver mortar  in  such  condition  that  the  masons  didn't  have  to 
work  it  over  and  freed  his  high-class  men  from  everything 
except  the  highest  class  of  work,  he  cut  the  cost  of  brick- 
laying in  half.  Whenever  a  three  hundred  dollar  a  month 
superintendent  does  the  work  of  a  fifty  dollar  clerk  he  is  rob- 
bing the  company  of  forty  cents  an  hour  in  wages  and  no  one 
knows  how  much  in  high  class  thinking  and  in  executive 
work  left  undone.  Sometimes,  of  course,  a  factory  is  so 
small  that  the  superintendent  has  to  be  shipping  clerk,  book- 
keeper, cost  clerk  and  stenographer  but,  as  a  general  rule,  he 
should  be  freed  from  detail  and  clerical  work  of  every  sort. 
In  no  other  way  can  he  give  consideration  to  the  technical, 
mechanical  and  economic  problems  upon  whose  solution  the 
very  life  of  the  plant  sometimes  depends. 

It.  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  provide  some  sort  of  ma- 
chinery to  relieve  the  superintendent  of  clerical  work  and 
of  the  details  of  plant  operation,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
insure  that  matters  which  should  come  to  his  attention  do 
come  to  his  attention  at  once,  and  forcibly  when  necessary. 
This  is  done  by  organizing  a  Department  of  Central  Control 
or  Despatch  Office. 


CHAPTER  V 


Planning  and  Scheduling 

E  DESPATCH  -OFFICE,  which  is  the  physical  and 
visible  sign  of  scientific  centralized  control,  should 
be  located  as  near  the  plant's  center  of  population  as  pos- 
sible so  that  whoever  is  called  upon  to  visit  it  can  do  so 
with  the  least  possible  expenditure  of  time,  for  which,  of 
course,  the  company  pays.  The  building  may  be  anything 
from  a  shack  to  an  elaborate  structure  of  brick  contain- 
ing laboratories,  first-aid  hospitals  and  drafting  rooms. 
The  housing  is  immaterial.  The  principle  is  essential. 
The  despatch  office  is  the  heart  and  medulla  oblongata 
of  the  factory  and  must  be  equipped  to  insure  the  opera- 
tion of  the  entire  plant  at  the  highest  possible  efficiency 
at  all  times. 

I.     COST  SYSTEM 

This  equipment  consists,  first,  of  an  adequate  cost  sys- 
tem. The  exact  forms  used  do  not  matter,  nor  the  names 
by  which  the  various  operations  are  called.  Certain  re- 
sults, tabulated  below,  are,  however,  vital: 

1.  The  cost  system  must  be  accurate,  otherwise  its  in- 
fluence in  its  sphere  is  no  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
liar  in  the  community. 

2.  It  must  present  the  facts  promptly.     Inquests  held  a 
month  after  a  murder  is  committed  very  seldom  result  in 
the  capture  of  the  assailant.     Similarly,  the  superintendent 
who  informs  one  of  his  foremen  six  weeks  after  it  hap- 
pened that  during  a  certain  week  the  cost  of  operating  his 
department  was  high,  evokes  little  beyond  stock  excuses. 
The   foreman,  even  if  there  was   a  good  reason  for   the 
rise,   has  forgotten   it,   and   the   chance   of   analyzing  the 
cause  and  eliminating  it  is  slight  when  all  details  are  lost 
in   the  dim  past  of  six-weeks-old  history.     It  is  possible 

48 


Planning  and  Scheduling  49 

to  have  accurate  manufacturing  costs  two  days  after  the 
close  of  the  month.  The  cost  of  important  operations  for 
the  previous  day  should  be  on  the  superintendent's  desk 
by  nine  o'clock  the  following  morning. 

3.  It  must  be  complete.     The  cost  of  every  operation 
should  be  shown.     The  use  of  such  headings  as  "General 
Work,"    "Miscellaneous    Supplies"    and    similar    hold-alls 
should    not   be    tolerated   as   they   encourage   inefficiency, 
and  even  graft. 

4.  It  must  be  vital.     A  cost  system  should  assist,  ac- 
tively, in  the  administration  of  the  factory.     When  things 
go  wrong  it  should  shout  the  fact  and  demand  an  imme- 
diate remedy.     Costs  which   come  to  the   superintendent 
alone,   covering  a   single  month,  may  be  looked  at  with 
polite   interest   and   laid   aside.     All   costs   should   be   ar- 
ranged   in    comparative    form.      Then,    when    the    cost   of 
clay  goes  up,  the  superintendent  will  know  it,  will  inves- 
tigate and  will,  if  possible,   take  steps  to  reduce  the  pit 
costs   to   their    former   level.     When  the   burning  cost    falls, 
the  fact  must  be  brought  forcibly  to  his  attention,  so  that 
he  will  investigate  and  make  the  gain  permanent. 

5.  It  must  be   economical.     A  cost  system  to  remain 
vital    must   be    frequently   pruned.      Records    which    have 
outlived  their  usefulness  must  be  discarded.     There  must 
be   no   unnecessary   records   kept.      Forms   should   be   no 
more     elaborate     than     conditions     demand.       Otherwise, 
money  is  wasted  for  stationery  and  for  clerk  hire.     The 
whole  system  should  be  gone  over  at  least  once  a  year 
and  the  axe  applied  ruthlessly  to  any  portion  that  is  not 
absolutely   essential. 

II.      GRAPHIC   CONTROL 

This  has,  in  a  measure,  been  covered  by  the  previous 
section  on  costs.  The  continuous  follow-up  on  every  de- 
partment secured  by  making  it  possible  to  compare  the 
cost  of  an  operation  for  one  period  with  the  cost  for  all 
other  periods  by  the  use  of  a  curve  which  brings  the  whole 
thing  before  the  superintendent  at  one  time  and  allows  the 
situation  to  be  understood  at  a  glance,  is  invaluable.  When, 
in  addition,  the  standard  cost  of  every  operation  has  been 
scientifically  determined  and  the  curve  shows  just  how 
nearly  the  actual  accomplishment  approaches  this  stand- 
ard, a  spur  is  provided  which  insures  the  operation  of 
that  plant  at  the  highest  possible  efficiency  at  all  times. 


50          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

III.      THE    EXCEPTION    PRINCIPLE 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  value  of  having  the  su- 
perintendent free  to  devote  his  time  to  technical  and 
other  problems.  It  is  upon  the  despatch  office  that  he 


IMPERIAL    BRICK    CO. 

LABOR 

SERVICE    CARD 

Name 

Employee 

Man  No. 

Dept.     No.        Date 

Started 

Continued 

Finished 

With    No. 

Mach.No. 

Order     No. 

Oper.     No.     Account 
No. 

Delay  and   Cause 

Operation 

Time     Finished 

Quantit) 

Product 

PCS. 

Done 

Wt. 

Done 

Time  Started 

Time  Elapsed 

Rate 

Wages 

Burden 



Total 

Service   Card    Printed    In   Three   Colors   Which    Allows    Each 
Employe's  Time  to  Be  Quickly  Distributed  in  Such  a  Way 
As   to    Insure    an    Accurate    Payroll,    Exact    Depart- 
mental   Costs    and     Easily    Procured    Job    Costs 

depends  to  sound  the  warning  bell.  The  routine  of  the 
factory  is  taken  care  of  by  the  chief  despatcher,  who 
keeps  in  touch  with  all  the  details  of  manufacture.  If  the 
superintendent  does  not  hear  from  the  chief  despatcher 
to  the  contrary,  he  is  safe  in  assuming  that  the  factory 
routine  is  going  satisfactorily  and  that  he  is  free  to  con- 
sider ways  and  means  of  increasing  the  quality  of  the 
product  and  of  lowering  the  cost  of  production.  In  other 
words,  everything  is  all  right  "except"  what  is  brought  to 
his  attention  by  the  central  control  office. 

IV.      PLANNING 

Ordinarily,  about  a  plant,  trouble  is  dealt  with  when  it 
arises.     As  a  result,  running  a  clay  factory  has  been  de- 


Planning  and  Scheduling  51 

scribed  as  "just  one  darn  thing  after  another."  This  will  al- 
ways be  the  case  as  long  as  the  possible  troubles  are  not 
figured  out  beforehand  and  steps  taken  to  prevent  their 
arising. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  usual  method  of  setting  a  kiln. 
The  shop  foreman,  who  is  generally  a  much  harassed 
individual,  is  sought  by  Bill,  one  of  the  head  setters  and, 
about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  is  told  that  the  gang 
is  waiting  to  set  another  kiln.  He  tears  himself  away 
from  the  drying  problem  he  is  considering  long  enough 
to  tell  Bill  to  fill  kiln  No.  14  with  eighteen,  ten  and  four- 
inch  pipe  (or  with  bullnose,  standard  and  shape  brick 
numbered  X24,  Z23,  H118  and  M41,823,  as  the  case  may 
be)  and  returns  to  the  consideration  of  whether  the  steam 
boss  was  drunk  last  night  or  whether  the  clay  boss  used 
the  wrong  mix  to  cause  all  that  cracked  "stuff."  In  about 


BONUS   TICKET 

Imperial  Brick  Co. 


NAME Clock    No Date. 


Amount  of  Bonus  $  .........      Earned  for  period  ending  ......... 

rS'   .................  =  ..............  %    Efficiency. 


To  earn  more,  work  more  efficiently. 

Study  your  movements  to  increase  your  efficiency. 

Every  move  saved  means  more  money  on  this  ticket. 


Bonus    Ticket.      This    Card    Informs    Each    Employe    at    the 

Close  of  the  Bonus  Period  Just  How  Nearly   His  Work 

Approached   the  Standard   Set  and   Just   How 

Much   Additional    Pay   He  Will   Re- 

ceive   in  Consequence 

fifteen  minutes  Bill  comes  back  and  tells  him  that  the 
drawing  crew  haven't  finished  drawing  Kiln  14,  or  that 
the  masons  have  the  floor  all  torn  up.  The  shop  foreman 
leaves  his  drying  troubles  then  and  goes  down  to  see 
about  it.  Meantime  ten  or  fifteen  men  have  stood 
around  and  waited  twenty  or  thirty  minutes  at  a  cost  of 
two  or  three  dollars  in  wages  and  as  much  more  in  lost 
output,  while  the  thing  is  being  threshed  out.  He  finally 
tells  Bill  to  have  his  men  help  the  drawing  crew  clean  up 


52          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

No.  14  and  the  two  crews  fall  all  over  each  other  for  half 
an  hour  and  lose  four  or  five  dollars  more  for  the  company 
getting  things  going  again. 

At  times,  the  largest  part  of  the  foreman's  time  is  spent 
in  "finding  something  for  his  men  to  do."  Just  consider 
that  a  minute — finding  something  which  his  men  may 


Despatch    Board    in    the    Central    Control    Office.      Note    the 

Service   Cards    in    the    Racks   on    Either   Side 

of    the    Window 


waste  time  on  until  there  is  a  demand  for  their  services — 
finding  some  way  to  throw  the  company's  money  away! 

MORE   TIME  AND    MONEY  WASTED 

Presently,  Bill  gets  started.  An  hour  later  he  returns. 
"Those  eighteens  aren't  dry  enough  to  set"  or  "there 
aren't  enough  tens."  Then  follows  more  "alarms  and 
excursions,"  the  shop  foreman  and  Bill  combing  the  floors 
until  some  more  tens  are  found  and  the  eighteens  are 
pieced  out  with  twenty-fours  which,  incidentally,  means 
that  the  kiln  must  be  burned  on  a  twenty-four-inch  sched- 
ule, thereby  wasting  coal  and  increasing  the  kiln  turnover 


Planning  and  Scheduling 


53 


time.     Meantime,   of  course,  the   crew  has  been   waiting 
and  more  of  the  company's  good  money  thrown  away. 

This  may  seem  an  exaggerated  case  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  is  going  on  all  the  time 
even  in  comparatively  well  managed  plants,  as  anyone 
who  has  been  intimately  connected  with  their  manage- 
ment knows.  And  it  is  only  one  example  of  many  which 
might  be  cited — of  kilns  not  cool  enough  to  draw  when 
wanted,  of  insufficient  clay  in  the  bins  and  the  fact  dis- 
covered when  in  the  midst  of  a  heavy  tonnage  run  and  a 
hundred  other  things — all  of  "which  mean  interrupted  out- 
put, waiting  crews  and  increased  operation  costs. 

THE   REMEDY 

The  remedy,  of  course,  lies  in  proper  planning  and 
proper  scheduling.  If  the  burning  and  cooling  had  been 


Graph     Showing     Effect     of     Four     Weeks'     Planning     and 
Despatching    in    Reducing    Interruptions   to   the    Out- 
put  in   the   Machine   Room   of   a    Brick   Plant 


standardized — with  schedules  for  each  sized  pipe,  or  for 
different  sorts  of  brick  or  terra  cotta  shapes,  and  with  a 
reward  in  the  form  of  bonus  to  the  burning  crew  for 
burning  and  cooling  in  standard  time — it  would  have  been 
possible  for  the  chief  despatcher  to  have  predicted  ten 
days  ahead  to  within  half  a  day  when  each  kiln  would  be 


54          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

ready  to  draw.  With  this  knowledge  in  his  possession 
he  would  have  scheduled  the  drawing  of  each  kiln  with 
a  view  to  having  a  kiln  always  available.  With  the  draw- 
ing standardized  and  the  crew  on  bonus,  he  could  predict 
within  half  an  hour  of  just  how  long  it  would  take  to 
draw  any  sort  of  ware  from  any  kiln.  He  would  then 
have  made  a  tentative  schedule  showing  which  kilns 
would  be  available  the  next  morning,  arranging  for  a 
choice,  if  possible. 

He  would  then  have  consulted  his  records  and  would 
have  determined  what  size  ware  could  be  set  to  the  best 
advantage  and  his  planning  sheet  to  see  what  ware  was 
available.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  at  the  regular 
foreman's  meeting  he  would  have  stated  that  there  was 
plenty  of  twenty-four-inch  pipe  on  the  floors,  that  they 
needed  that  room  two  days  later  for  a  run  of  thirties,  that 
by  setting  the  twenty-fours  with  fifteens,  eights  and  threes, 
of  which  they  had  plenty,  they  would  get  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  tons  in  the  kiln  (and  would  consequently  burn  off 
with  the  least  coal  per  ton  of  ware),  that  kiln  No.  17  would 
be  repaired  and  ready  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  that 
the  setting  crew  working  on  kiln  No.  10  would  be  finished 
not  earlier  than  10:30  o'clock  the  next  morning  and  that, 
therefore,  unless  the  superintendent  or  one  of  the  foremen 
had  some  objection,  he  would  schedule  kiln  No.  17  for  Bill 
and  his  crew  the  next  morning.  In  this  way,  all  the  ineffi- 
ciency described  would  have  been  avoided,  discipline  would 
have  been  maintained  and  production  costs  held  at  the 
minimum. 

CAN    PLAN    WORK   QUICKLY  AND   MEET   CONTINGENCIES 

The  chief  despatcher,  once  he  has  been  provided  with 
proper  tools  and  records,  can,  in  a  comparatively  short 
time,  plan  the  operation  of  the  factory  twenty-four  hours 
ahead.  In  doing  this  he  can  provide  alternate  courses  to 
follow  in  case  of  necessity  and  have  ready  at  all  times  a 
detailed  plan  of  action  which  can  be  carried  out  without  a 
hitch. 

You  all  remember  the  story  of  the  great  Von  Moltke 
who,  lying  asleep  when  the  news  of  war  with  France  in 
1870  was  brought  him,  simply  rolled  over  and  said: 

"You'll  find  the  plan  of  campaign  in  the  third  drawer 
of  my  desk." 


Planning  and  Scheduling  55 

The  plan  was  followed  and,  only  a  few  months  later, 
Germany  made  peace  on  her  own  terms. 

The  problems  of  brick  yard  operation  are  certainly  no 
more  intricate,  and  the  chief  despatcher,  with  his  planning 
sheets  spreading  all  in  plain  view  before  him,  is  prepared  to 
meet  arising  contingencies  much  better  and  much  more 
quickly  than  the  foremen  depending  upon  their  memories 
and  issuing  orders  (which  may  easily  conflict  with  orders 
issued  by  others)  wherever  the  man  in  search  of  instruc- 
tions may  find  them. 

A  book  could  easily  be  written  on  "Planning"  and  the 
advantages  to  be  gained  therefrom.  Enough  has  been 
said,  however,  we  believe,  to  illustrate  its  value  both  in 
eliminating  inefficiencies  and  in  freeing  the  superintendent 
from  detail.  The  installation  of  an  effective  planning 
system  involves  a  careful  study  of  the  conditions  prevailing 
in  each  particular  plant.  The  equipment  must  be  adequate 
without  being  extravagent.  The  chief  despatcher  must  be 
carefully  selected  and  carefully  trained,  and  the  foremen 
must  be  taught  to  take  the  fullest  advantage  of  the  assist- 
ance offered.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  saving  is 
sufficient  to  cover  the  trouble  and  expense  many  times  over. 

V.— DESPATCHING 

This  feature  of  centralized  control  is  closely  allied  to 
planning.  The  planning  department  determines  what  is 
best  to  be  done  and  places  the  result  of  its  labors  before 
the  factory  executives  for  criticism,  approval  and  execu- 
tion. The  despatching  department  notifies  these  executives 
in  case  of  a  hitch  in  carrying  out  the  plan  adopted. 

In  a  clay  plant  the  planning  and  despatching  depart- 
ments are  usually  consolidated  under  one  head  and,  in 
some  cases,  the  duties  are  performed  by  one  man.  In 
either  case,  the  work  consists  largely  in  checking  up  the 
progress  of  the  adopted  plan  as  it  proceeds,  of  securing  a 
clear  track  for  it  and  of  calling  for  assistance  from  the 
proper  executive  in  case  of  obstruction.  It  is  the  duty  also 
of  the  chief  despatcher,  who  is  on  bonus,  to  see  that  all 
equipment,  tools  material  and  everything  tending  to  the 
smooth  and  uninterrupted  carrying  thru  of  the  plan 
adopted  is  ready  when  wanted. 

VI— GENERAL 

.  Various  other  matters  are  taken  care  of  at  the  despatch 
office.     Anyone   wishing   supplies   ordered,    goes   there   to 


56          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


Chief   Despatcher's   Desk,   Showing   Various   Records,   Stand- 
ard  Practice  Instructions,  Schedules  and  Graphic 
Control     Charts 


Planning  and  Scheduling  57 

make  out  his  requisition.  The  chief  despatcher  sees  that  it 
is  in  proper  form  and  that  it  has  been  properly  authorized 
before  turning  it  over  to  the  purchasing  department.  He 
watches  the  distribution  of  charges,  provides  men  for 
crews  which  are  short  handed,  rather  than  allow  the  fore- 
man, who  needs  a  man,  to  go  begging  from  crew  to  crew, 
or  to  ask  the  superintendent  to  hunt  one  up  for  him.  The 
chief  despatcher  schedules  work  for  the  repair  crew  and 
sees  that  the  work  is  not  released  until  the  material  is  on 
hand.  He  schedules  work  for  the  extra  gang,  making  sure 
that  the  work  done  is  important  and  that  the  extra  gang  is 
as  small  as  is  compatible  with  efficient  operation.  In  fact, 
his  duties  are  legion  and  he  earns  his  salary  and  his  bonus 
if  any  man  about  the  factory  does. 

SCIENTIFIC   CONTROL    FOR   THE    MANAGEMENT 

Once  the  factory  is  under  scientific  control  the  work  of 
the  general  manager  at  once  becomes  infinitely  easier.  The 
exception  principle  frees  him  from  an  immense  amount  of 
detail  and  the  time  so  gained  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  sales 
department  and  free  for  the  consideration  of  those  larger 
problems  of  business  which  determine  its  success  or  failure. 

The  theory  is  this — the  records,  graphs,  and  so  forth, 
with  which  he  is  provided  show  him  each  day,  each  month 
and  each  year,  just  how  nearly  the  factory  is  reaching  the 
standard  set  in  terms  of  efficiency  percentage.  If  his  con- 
trol sheet  shows  him  that  the  day  before  the  factory  was 
operated  at  ninety-eight  per  cent,  efficiency,  he  may  feel 
free  to  depart  for  the  golf  links  to  recuperate  from  the 
strain  of  the  big  deal  he  swung  the  night  before  or  to 
take  time,  to  study  certain  selling  problems  which  need 
attention. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  factory's  efficiency  fell  to 
eighty-eight  per  cent,  he  will  turn  over  to  his  next  sheets 
which  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  their  importance,  and 
find  perhaps  that  nine  of  his  departments  ran  over  ninety 
per  cent,  but  that  the  tenth  fell  to  sixty  per  cent.  He  has 
then  put  his  finger  on  the  exact  trouble  and  can  investi- 
gate the  circumstances  responsible  for  the  drop  in  the 
total  efficiency.  He  avoids  wasting  his  time  digging  thru 
a  lot  of  departments  which  do  not  need  his  attention,  and 
so  saves  nine-tenths  of  his  time  for  better  and  more  profit- 
able uses.  Actually,  it  is  perhaps  not  as  simple  as  this 


58          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


Year  of  1916  Month  of 

l»  Quarter     April      Moy      June      July 


The    Effect    of    Four    Months    of    Centralized    Control 
Upon  the  Number  of  Brick  Per  Man  Per  Day  Pro- 
duced.   Same  Kiln  Capacity  in  April  as  in  July 


Planning  and  Scheduling  59 

but  that  is  the  principle  of  the  thing.  The  graphs  in  his 
Administrative  and  Executive  Record  give  him  a  grasp  of 
operating  conditions  in  sufficient  detail  each  morning  to 
allow  him  to  use  his  time  to  the  best  advantage.  Once  a 
month  the  operating,  selling  and  administrative  costs  are 
entered  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  a  thoro  analysis  of  the 
business  possible  and  changes  in  policy  can  be  made  fear- 
lessly in  the  light  of  full  knowledge. 

The  same  system  of  control  has  been  applied  to  the  sell- 
ing and  the  executive  who  is  so  equipped  may  assure  him- 
self that  there  is  nothing  of  importance  that  can  escape  his 
attention.  Where  the  bonus  reward  has  been  applied  in  all 
departments  he  may  be  sure  that  every  man  .in  his  organ- 
ization be  he  laborer,  salesman  or  clerk  is  looking  upon 
the  company's  business  as  his  own  business  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  ability,  is  doing  his  best  to  make  the  earnings 
of  the  company  all  that  the  stockholders  desire. 


CHAPTER  VI 


Standardized  Technical  Control 

A  COUPLE  of  years  ago,  the  president  of  one  of  the  largest 
clay  manufacturing  concerns  in  the  country  was  asked 
what  he  would  establish  as  an  ideal  if  he  were  required  to  set 
a  standard  of  attainment  for  his  head  burner  and  assistants. 
His  reply,  without  ever  batting  an  eye,  was :  "One  hundred 
per  cent.  No.  1  ware,  with  no  labor  and  no  fuel!"  There  is 
no  question  that  high  ideals  are  commendable  in  a  man,  but 
the  millennium  isn't  here  yet — at  least  not  around  the  usual 
brick  yard.  The  determination  of  attainable  ideals  or  stand- 
ards, however,  and  the  inducement  of  the  burning  crew  to 
attain  these  standards,  expresses,  in  a  few  words,  the  applica- 
tion of  Scientific  Management  to  burning. 

Just  what  constitutes  a  reasonable  standard  in  each  case 
must  be  determined  by  local  conditions — the  kind  of  clay, 
the  sort  of  coal — even  the  climate  and  the  type  of  labor  play 
an  important  part  m  arriving  at  a  conclusion  as  to  what 
results  may  be  reasonably  'expected,  ultimately.  The  prin- 
ciples in  every  case  are  the  same,  and  the  ideal  is  the  same 
— the  highest  percentage  of  first  class  ware,  with  the  least 
coal  and  with  the  least  labor.  This  goal  must  be  kept  con- 
tinually in  mind  and  every  step  taken  must  be  a  step  in  that 
direction.  In  that  way,  and  in  that  way  only,  can  the  larg- 
est possible  dividend  be  earned  for  the  stockholders  who  in- 
vest their  money  and  who  have  a  right  to  expect  every 
man  from  the  water-boy  to  the  president  of  the  company 
to  do  his  utmost  to  guard  against  loss. 

STANDARDIZED    CONDITIONS 

The  first  step  is  to  standardize  conditions.  To  a  great 
many  owners  of  clay  plants  "kilns  is  kilns"  in  much  the  same 
way  as  "pigs  were  pigs"  to  the  Irish  freight  agent  in  the 
story  and,  if  they  only  knew  it,  the  results  of  failing  to  differ- 
entiate are  quite  as  serious  to  them  and  to  their  stockholders, 

60 


Standardized  Control  61 

as  the  results  were  in  a  personal  way  to  that  unfortunate 
Hibernian  who  asserted  that  the  guinea  pig,  and  the  variety 
which  furnishes  us  with  pork  chops  and  ham,  were  one  and 
the  same,  as  far  as  he  was  concerned. 

A  great  many  clay  plants,  especially  those  constructed  a 
number  of  years  ago,  have  been  the  training  school  for  every 
clay  worker  out  of  a  job  who  happened  along  and  who  had 
nerve  enough  to  call  himself  a  superintendent.  As  a  result 
every  kiln  and  every  kiln  bottom,  in  a  good  many  plants,  is 
different.  Each  successive  foreman  or  superintendent  has 
tried  out  some  of  his  pet  ideas  until  every  kiln  burns  differ- 
ently from  every  other  kiln  and  turns  out  very  different  re- 
sults both  in  percentages  and  in  coal  consumption.  Obviously, 
there  can  be  only  one  best  result.  Money  has  been  lost  and 
is  being  lost  right  along  on  every  other  kiln  which  uses  more 
coal  or  turns  out  less  No.  1  ware  than  the  best  kiln. 

The  ideal  way  to  remedy  this  would  be  to  tear  out  every 
kiln  bottom  and  put  in  a  standard  bottom  designed  by  an 
expert.  This  would  undoubtedly  give  uniform  results  and 
all  the  kilns  would  be  "best  kilns."  Unfortunately,  most  own- 
ers of  clay  plants  are  not  in  the  millionaire  class  and,  if  they 
are,  they  are  not  inclined  to  incur  an  expenditure  of  five  or 
six  hundred  dollars  a  kiln  merely  on  the  recommendation 
of  an  engineer  the  first  time  they  meet  him.  Standardized 
conditions,  then,  must  resolve  themselves  at  first  into  a  per- 
sonal expedition  into  the  not-too-cool  depths  which  lie  be- 
neath each  kiln. 

The  personal  inspection  of  each  kiln  bottom  is  not  pleas- 
ant, but  it  is  generally  productive  of  results.  These  results, 
in  the  writer's  experience,  have  varied  anywhere  from  find- 
ing a  long  abandoned  iron  wheel  barrow  in  the  main  flue, 
where  some  worthy  laborer  had  been  loading  it  when  the 
whistle  blew,  to  encountering  a  tepid  stream  of  water 
thru  which  it  was  necessary  to  splash  on  the  hands  and  knees 
for  thirty  or  forty  feet.  Neither  one  of  these  phenomena 
were  good  for  the  draft  nor  for  the  percentage  of  first-grade 
brick. 

EXPERT  NOW  READY  TO  PROCEED 

After  the  kiln  bottoms  have  been  cleaned  out  and  "drained 
— and  both  these  things  should  be  done  much  oftener  than 
the  executives  of  clay  plants  have  any  idea — the  expert  is 
ready  to  proceed  with  his  standardization.  It  is  essential 
not  only  that  all  kiln  bottoms  should  be  as  nearly  alike  as 


62          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

possible— in  order  that  the  method  of  burning  which  gives 
the  best  results  on  one  kiln  will  give  it  on  all  kilns — but  it 
is  also  necessary  that  this  standard  design  shall  be  one  which 
will  give  satisfactory  results.  Otherwise  the  results  might  be 
uniform — but  they  would  be  uniformly  bad. 

Kiln  designing  is  a  profession  in  itself  and  no  attempt 
can  be  made  at  this  time  to  go  into  the  details.  Un- 
fortunately,, there  is  very  little  literature  on  the  subject,  altho 
an  attempt  was  made  to  reduce  flue  proportioning  and  regu- 
lation to  a  science  in  a  paper  published  in  Volume  Thirteen 
of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Ceramic  Society.*  The 
mistake  is  made  in  the  article,  however,  of  assuming  that  the 
movement  of  hot  gases  follows  the  same  laws  as  do  those  of 
cold  gases — which  is  not  the  case.  Fairly  satisfactory  results, 
however,  can  be  obtained  by  following  the  rules  set  down  in 
the  article,  as  the  writer  has  occasion  to  know.  The  two 
results  which  must  be  aimed  at  are: 

I — Flues  large  enough  to  obtain  sufficient  draft  at  all  times. 

II — Flues  so  arranged  that  the  burning  can  be  absolutely 
and  easily  regulated  by  the  burner.  (Hot  spots  and  cold 
spots  are  entirely  unnecessary.  The  kiln  bottom  should  be 
so  designed  that  a  competent  burner,  after  observing  the 
result  of  a  burn  or  two,  may  easily,  quickly  and  accurately 
effect  a  change  in  the  draft  by  closing  off  certain  flues,  or  by 
opening  certain  flues,  which  will  give  an  absolutely  even  burn 
in  all  parts  of  the  kiln.) 

As  we  have  stated,  these  results  are  easily  attained  if  the 
owners  are  ready  to  spend  the  money.  Even,  however,  if 
their  resources  are  unlimited  and  their  generosity  is  of  equal 
magnitude,  common  sense  dictates  that  the  results  should  be 
obtained  as  cheaply  as  possible.  If  every  clay  plant  would 
adopt  for  its  motto :  "No  Improvements  unless  they  will  pay 
for  themselves  in  Two  Years,"  there  would  be  fewer  busi- 
ness failures.  We  must  follow  common  sense  then  and, 
after  a  careful  survey  of  the  kiln  bottoms,  the  stack  and  the 
fire  holes,  decide  upon  what  can  be  done  to  secure  the  best 
possible  results  with  the  least  possible  expense.  In  other 
words  our  standard  must  be :  "Uniformly  perfect  kilns  with- 
out spending  any  money."  The  final  result  may  be  a  com- 
promise but  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  real  effi- 
ciency is  economy. 


•See  "Kiln  Flue  Regulation  According  to  Some  Ventilation  Formu- 
lae." by  Dwight  T.  Farnham. 


Standardized  Control 


63 


TECHNICAL  CONTROL 

While  the  kilns  are  being  analyzed  and  standardized  a 
record  of  exactly  how  the  burning  is  conducted  is  built  up. 

The  Pyrometer — A  pyrometer  is  perhaps  not  absolutely 
necessary,  but  anyone  who  has  used  one  in  burning  would 
never  be  without  it,  if  he  could  help  himself.  The  writer  fired 
kilns  and  was  head-burner  for  nearly  a  year  on  a  yard  where 
technical  control  might  be  said  to  exist  and  where  no  pyrom- 
eter was  used,  and  knows  from  personal  experience  that  very 
satisfactory  results  can  be  obtained  on  sewer-pipe,  brick  and 
conduits  by  using  a  thermometer  registering  up  to  500  degrees, 
pyrometric  cones,  and  by  keeping  a  careful  record  of  just 
where  the  fires  are  on  the  grates,  when  the  ware  begins  to 
show  red,  and  so  forth.  However,  there  is  no  doubt  in  the 
writer's  mind  that  even  where  careful  records  are  kept  and 
the  burning  is  in  charge  of  experienced  men,  that  a  pyrometer 


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system  will  pay  for  itself  in  from  a  year  to  eighteen  months. 
This  saving  is  entirely  aside  from  any  saving  effected  by  the 
use  of  technical  methods  of  handling  the  burning,  or  by  the 


64          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


application  of  the  principles  of  scientific  management.     The 
reasons  for  this  are  briefly  as  follows: 

I — Coal  consumption  varies  almost  directly  with" the  num- 
ber  of  hours   the   kiln   is   burned.     If   a  steady   advance   in 

Days 


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temperature  is  maintained  and  there  are  no  setbacks  (except, 
of  course,  such  as  may  be  intentional  for  the  purpose  of  driv- 
ing the  heat  to  the  bottom,  etc.)  the  burning  time  is  obviously 
not  as  long  as  if  the  heat  is  allowed  to  go  back  every  little 
while  and  then  has  to  be  raised  again.  (See  Graphs  A,  B  and 
C.)  The  pyrometer,  therefore,  saves  coal. 

II — Many  sorts  of  ware,  such  as  sewer-pipe  and  paving- 
brick — when  of  a  particularly  vitreous  variety — are  injured 
by  letting  the  heat  go  back.  With  the  pyrometer  the  heat 
advance  is  steady.  The  pyrometer,  therefore,  increases  the 
percentage  of  first  grade  product. 

Ill — The  longer  each  kiln  is  burned — the  more  kilns  there 
are  on  fire  at  one  time — the  more  labor  there  is  required  all 
the  time.  Anything,  therefore,  that  cuts  down  the  burning 
time  reduces  the  labor  expense.  The  pyrometer  then  reduces 
burning  costs. 


Standardized  Control  65 

GRAPHIC   ILLUSTRATION  OF  PYROMETER  SAVINGS 

Graph  A  shows  at  the  right  the  first  two  burns  which  were 
recorded  on  a  pyrometer.  At  the  left  are  shown  two  burns 
made  two  weeks  later.  Results  obtained  are  as  follows : 

1 — On  the  first  two  burns  the  temperature  went  back  on 
Burn  No.  1  eight  times  and  on  Burn  No.  2  five  times.  Two 
weeks  later  on  Burn  No.  17  and  No.  18  the  heat  went  back 
only  once  on  each  kiln. 

2 — The  watersmoking  time  was  cut  from  ninety-six  to 
eighty-four  hours  and  the  high  fire  period  from  one  hundred 
ana  eight  to  eighty-eight  and  eighty-two  hours  for  the 
respective  kilns.  This  represents  a  total  saving  in  the 
burning  time  of  thirty-six  hours  on  each  kiln  or  of  sev- 
enteen per  cent. 

.5 — This  cut  in  the  burning  time  alone  meant  an  increase 
01  ten  per  cent,  in  the  output  of  this  particular  factory, 
with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  returns  (in  the  form 
of  profits)  available  for  dividends,  a  decrease  in  the  cost 
of  manufacture  and  saved  an  expenditure  of  over  six  thou- 
sand dollars  for  new  kilns. 

Just  how  much  of  this  saving  was  due  to  the  use  of  the 
pyrometer,  to  the  installation  of  an  effective  record  sys- 
tem, and  to  the  application  of  technical  knowledge  and  the 
principles  of  scientific  management,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
The  fact  remains,  however,  that  in  two  weeks  the  presence 
of  the  pyrometer  so  clarified  the  whole  situation  that  all 
concerned  knew  exactly  what  they  were  doing  at  all  times 
and  it  was  possible  to  secure  the  maximum  of  progress 
and  to  effect  the  greatest  economy  in  the  shortest  time. 

The  Draft  Gauge — If  the  wind  always  blew  from  one  direc- 
tion at  the  same  velocity,  if  the  temperature  and  humidity 
were  always  the  same  and  if  there  was  always  the  same 
amount  of  moisture  in  the  clay,  the  coal  and  the  ground  sur- 
rounding each  kiln,  there  would  be  little  use  for  the  draft 
gauge.  This  is  not  the  case,  however,  and  consequently  to 
secure  standard  operating  conditions  we  must  have  some 
means  of  gauging  the  effect  fluctuations  in  these  various  fac- 
tors have  upon  the  circulation  of  air  in  the  kiln  upon  which 
we  have  to  depend  to  dry  our  ware  during  the  watersmoking 
period,  to  assist  in  the  removal  of  various  sorts  of  deleterious 
matter  during  the  oxidation  period,  as  well  as  the  effect  they 
have  upon  the  behavior  of  the  gases  during  the  vitrification 
or  settle  period  upon  which  we  must  rely  to  drive  the  heat  to 
the  bottom  of  the  kiln.  Theoretically,  much  more  complicated 


66          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


apparatus  is  needed  than  the  Seger  gauge,  but  practically, 
once  the  kilns  have  been  standardized,  sufficiently  accurate 
results  can  be  obtained  by  an  intelligent  and  consistent  use  of 
the  Seger  gauge  if  the  damper  is  manipulated  as  the  gauge 
directs.  The  result  is  a  maintenance  of  that  draft  which 
guarantees  the  shortest  watersmoking,  the  shortest  oxidation 
and  the  shortest  finish — all  of  which  mean  minimum  burning 

Days 


2300 


|3    |      14    I 
48    60    Tt     84     % 


M 


\     V    I     PI     PIP0 

120    1 3?    144    I  b    Ifa8  fgO   19?    Z.04  Z\<a 


CUWl 


Burn  flo  150  in  Sepl  1915 . 
Burn  Ho  ?ll  in  flov,  1915 

Kilns  III  ir  116 

Works  I  -36' Glazed  Droid  Tile' 


t 


Tons  Coal  Per  Ton  Pipe 
I   Burnriol50-no?ll 


Graph   C 

time  and  lowest  coal  consumption.  In  addition  it  makes  pos- 
sible the  employment  of  more  scientific  methods  of  driving 
the  heat  to  the  bottom  of  the  kiln  and,  consequently,  increases 
the  percentage  of  hard  burned  brick  or  sewer-pipe  and  of  the 
salable  product. 

Seger  Cones — These  are  invaluable  on  the  finish  since  they 
are  affected  by  the  kiln  gases  in  much  the  same  way  as  the 
clay  ware  itself.  Any  practical  burner  knows  that  a  hard 
smoke  will  very  often  send  a  lot  of  hollow  ware  over  in  the 
kiln,  even  when  the  pyrometer  does  not  register  any  ap- 
preciable rise  in  temperature.  The  cones  detect  just  such 
conditions  as  this  and,  together  with  the  trials  and  the  settle 
in  the  case  of  brick,  furnish  the  most  accurate  method  of 
reproducing  time  after  time  a  given  and  desirable  set  of 
conditions  on  the  finish.  The  result  can  only  be  a  higher 
percentage  of  salable  ware. 


Standardized  Control  67 

Records — When  the  writer  began  firing  kilns  he  carried 
in  his  hip  pocket  a  much  delapidated  and  soiled  note- 
book in  which  was  recorded  when  each  kiln  was  lit,  what 
it  contained  and  whether  the  ware  was  dry.  This  con- 
stituted his  only  burning  record.  In  many  parts  of -the 
country  the  same  method  prevails  today  and  burners  are 
depending  upon  their  memory  of  past  performances,  upon 
their  intuition  and,  in  extreme  cases,  upon  the  flip  of  a 
coin  to  guide  them  as  to  what  to  do  next  on  each  kiln. 
This  may  have  been  all  very  well  when  the  brick  yard 
was  part  of  the  farm,  and  consisted  of  one  scove  kiln. 
Handling  a  battery  of  forty  or  fifty  kilns  of  sewer-pipe 
or  paving-brick  is  a  different  matter  and,  to  date,  no 
human  mind  has  been  constructed  which  can  'remem- 
ber in  sufficient  detail  just  what  is  going  on  in  every  one  of 
them,  just  what  happened  in  each  one  of  them  last  burned 
and  the  burn  before  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  insure  one^hun- 
dred  per  cent,  efficiency  on  every  kiln  burned  oft 

It  is  here  that  one  of  the  principles  of  scientific  management 
enters  strongly,  namely,  immediate,  accurate  and  adequate 
records,  so  designed  and  prepared  as  to  aid  actively  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  business — records  which  make  it  harder  to 
do  the  wrong  than  the  right  thing,  which  bring  to  the  execu- 
tive the  best  of  past  experience  and  which  present  exact 
knowledge  in  such  form  that  it  will  be  transmitted  to  his  as- 
sistants so  that  it  cannot  be  misunderstood,  and  must  be  fol- 
lowed in  such  a  manner  as  will  secure  the  best  possible  results 
at  all  times. 

BRIEF   OUTLINE   OF   ADEQUATE    BURNING    RECORDS 

The  application  of  this  system  is  difficult  to  describe  in  a 
paper  of  this  sort.  Briefly,  however,  it  comprises: 

I — The  Daily  Instruction  Sheet,  made  out  by  the  head  burner 
each  evening  and  containing  written  instructions  as  to  how  to 
carry  each  kiln  during  the  next  twenty-four  hours  in  such 
form  that  the  man  actually  firing  each  kiln  knows  just  what 
to  do. 

II — The  Burning  Progress  Sheet,  on  which  each  fireman  en- 
ters in  detail  the  exact  condition  of  his  kiln  or  kilns  every 
three  hours,  and  which  is  so  arranged  as  to  make  comparisons 
between  kilns  obvious  and  easy. 

Ill — The  Finish  Sheet,  which  is  a  record  of  the  finish  of 
each  kiln  in  detail  and  contains  space  for  entering  the  details 


68          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

of  cooling,  the  results  obtained  and  recommendations  as  to 
changes  in  the  kiln,  the  method  of  firing,  etc. 

IV — Analytical  and  Comparative  Records.    There  is  consid- 
erable variation  in  these  sheets.     The  object,  however,   is  to 


Forty    Kilns    on    One    Pyrometer 

compare  the  results  obtained  and  the  methods  used  to  obtain 
these  results  in  such  a  way  that  conclusions  as  to  the  most 
effective  treatment  are  obvious. 

By  the  consistent  and  regular  use  of  these  records,  which 
sound  much  more  formidable  than  they  really  are,  since  the 
firemen,  regardless  of  whether  they  can  speak  English  or 
not,  are  taught  to  keep  up  most  of  them,  another  principle  of 
scientific  management  is  applied — that  of  the  "rachet"  or  "fish- 
hook grab,"  which  means  that  any  advantage  once  gained 
must  never  be  lost. 

The  advantage  of  this  is  obvious.  Anyone  who  has  been 
around  a  brick  yard  to  any  extent  knows  that  every  once  in 


Standardized  Control  69 

a  while  there  is  a  "freak  burn" — a  burn  which  turns  out 
phenomenally  good  ware,  or  which  used  an  extraordinarily 
small  amount  of  coal.  With  the  "rachet"  principle  firmly  es- 
tablished, these  freaks  are  made  "regular  things."  This  can- 
not be  done,  however,  when  the  only  burning  record  is  the 
greasy  note-book  in  the  burner's  hip  pocket.  Conditions  must 
be  recorded  in  sufficient  detail  to  make  intelligent  analysis 
possible.  When  this  is  done  freaks  merge  into  the  regular 
thing  and  the  decrease  in  coal,  the  increase  in  first  quality 
ware  and  the  economies  effected  generally  mean  satisfaction 
thruout  the  factory  and  increased  earnings  for  the  stock- 
holders. 

THE   BONUS   REWARD 

Once  conditions  have  been  standardized,  and  the  burning 
accurately  recorded  and  analyzed,  it  is  possible  to  set  stand- 
ards of  attainment  as  to  : 

1.  Coal  Consumption. 

2.  Firing  Labor. 

3.  Percentages  of  First  Quality  Ware. 

Once  it  has  been  decided  what  is  a  reasonable  standard,  tak- 
ing into  consideration  the  particular  clay  and  coal  used,  the 
prevalent  labor  conditions,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  it  is  possible  to  offer 
the  burners  and  the  firing  crew  a  monetary  reward  for  the 
attainment,  or  partial  attainment  of  this  standard.  The  set- 
ting of  these  standards  requires  considerable  care,  experience 
and  judgment,  inasmuch  as  to  be  effective  in  securing  results 
they  must  be  just  exactly  as  fair  to  the  men  as  to  the  com- 
pany. 

Too  much  must  not  be  expected  of  the  men,  proper  fatigue 
allowance  must  be  made  and  every  assistance  possible  must 
be  rendered  which  will  enable  them  to  secure  their  reward 
whenever  they  honestly  earn  it. 

On  the  other  hand  a  mistake  in  judgment  as  to  what  ought 
to  be  accomplished — say  in  increasing  percentages — might  re- 
sult in  a  payment  entirely  out  of  proportion  to  the  effort  ex- 
pended by  the  men  and  would  leave  the  company  to  decide 
between  paying  out  hundreds  of  dollars  unnecessarily  or  cut- 
ting the  bonus  arbitrarily — in  which  case  either  course  would 
be  disastrous. 

RESULTS 

Individual  Burns — The  effect  of  setting  a  fair  mark  to 
shoot  at  and  then  making  it  worth  the  while  of  every 
man  on  the  job  to  hit  the  bull's-eye  is  difficult  to  compre- 


70          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

hend  unless  you  have  been  thru  it.  Instead  of  one  burner- 
boss  you  have  a  score.  Every  man  from  the  boss  down 
to  the  water-boy  makes  it  his  business  to  see  that  the 
best  possible  results  are  obtained  all  the  time,  because 


Fireman    Taking    Draft    Gauge    Reading 


his  earnings  depend  upon  the  attainment  of  the  standard 
set,  and  woe  be  unto  anyone  who  interferes  with  the  at- 
tainment of  that  standard.  The  interest  of  each  man  on 
the  firing  force  in  the  company's  earnings  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  his  own  particular  job.  At  this  very  time  a 
friend  of  the  writer's  who  is  working  under  the  system — 
a  head  burner  in  a  clay  plant  employing  over  two  hun- 


Standardized  Control  71 

dred  and  fifty  men — is,  in  his  own  interest,  frantically 
writing  around  the  country  to  every  practical  mine  boss 
and  mine  engineer  he  knows,  to  find  out  how  to  handle 
a  certain  clay  mining  proposition  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
him  all  the  clay  of  certain  grade  he  wants  in  order  to 
increase  his  percentages  and,  incidentally,  his  bonus. 

It  is  not  all  mercenary  either.  The  system  increases  the 
men's  pride  in  their  work  and  their  interest  in  their  work. 
They  have  a  definite  goal  and  the  game  element  enters  into 
the  thing — a  little  of  the  spirit  that  makes  street  corner 
crowds  cheer  a  base  ball  score  or  which  induces  our  captains 
of  industry  to  toil  in  the  sun  over  a  golf  course  in  a  race 
with  Col.  Bogey. 

WHAT    SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT    WILL    DO    IN    THE 
BURNING  OF  SEWER  PIPE 

The  graphs  marked  "B"  and  "C"  show,  to  a  small  degree, 
the  results  which  Scientific  Management  will  obtain  when 
applied  to  sewer-pipe  burning.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
curves  which  illustrate  typical  burns  for  their  respective 
periods  on  the  same  sized  pipe  on  each  sheet,  indicate  for 
eight-inch  pipe  on  graph  B  a  reduction  in  the  burning  period 
from  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  hours  in  July,  1915,  to 
sixty-three  hours  in  April,  1916 — a  reduction  of  seventy-five 
hours,  or  fifty-four  per  cent,  in  eight  months.  The  coal  was 
reduced  from  .70  of  a  ton  per  ton  of  pipe  to  .58,  or  seventeen 
per  cent,  in  spite  of  the  higher  temperature  reached. 

Graph  C  shows  the  reduction  in  burning  period  on  a  kiln 
of  thirty-six-inch  glazed  tile  of  sixty-six  hours — from  two 
hundred  and  sixteen  to  one  hundred  and  fifty,  or  a  reduction 
of  thirty  per  cent.  The  coal  in  this  case  was  reduced  from 
.66  tons  to  .41,  or  a  thirty-eight  per  cent,  decrease.  The  time 
required  to  effect  this  improvement  amounted  to  three  months. 

General — The  principles  described  have  been  applied  either 
as  a  whole,  or  in  part  by  the  writer  and  by  his  friends  to  at 
least  ten  different  clay  plants  manufacturing  among  other 
things,  sewer-pipe,  paving-brick,  drain-tile,  architectural  terra 
cotta,  building  block,  electrical  conduit,  fire-brick  and  build- 
ing-brick. 

The  most  recent  application  of  these  principles  to  burning 
hollow-ware  resulted  in  seven  months  in  effecting  burning 
labor  economies,  amounting  to  over  $5,000  yearly,  in  increas- 
ing the  percentage  of  first  quality  product  sufficiently  to  add 
over  $8,500  to  the  annual  return,  and  in  saving  kiln  coal  at 


72          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

the  rate  of  over  $13,250  per  year — economies  amounting  alto- 
gether to  over  $26,000  per  year. 

First    quality    ware    increased    twenty    per    cent.,    and    un- 
salable   second   quality   ware    decreased     four    hundred    and 


What  Happens  to  Sewer  Pipe  When   You   Try  To  Save   Coal 

By  Shortening  the   Burning  Time  According  to  the 

Principles  of  "Unscientific   Management" 

'eighty  per  cent,   while  the  amount  of  coal  used  per  ton  of 
product  was  reduced  forty  per  cent. 

Wherever  the  principles  have  been  applied  the  men  have 
been  more  contented,  the  company  has  been  better  able  to 
hold  its  men,  labor  troubles  have  decreased,  the  kiln  output 
has  been  increased  and  the  economies  which  have  been 
effected  thru  the  higher  percentages  of  first  grade  product 
obtained,  the  decreased  labor  cost,  and  the  lower  coal  con- 
sumption have  been  ample  return  for  all  the  labor  and  effort 
expended. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Three  Important  Aids  to  the  Factory 
Manager 

HERE  IS  A  CERTAIN  TYPE  of  superintendent  who 
might  be  characterized  as  an  iron-clad  optimist.  He  is 
not  so  much  to  blame  for  being  a  liar,  inasmuch  as  he  is 
largely  a  product  of  circumstances.  It  is  rather  because  he 
knows  that  certain  things  are  expected  of  him  by  his 
superiors  and  he,  therefore,  does  his  best  to  deliver  the  goods 
— in  words,  regardless  of  whether  the  facts  warrant  his 
statements.  This  is  but  natural  since  the  support  of  his 
family  strikes  him  as  an  immediate  and  important  cjemand, 
while  he  feels  that  a  strict  regard  for  the  exact  truth  is, 
perhaps,  a  worthy  ideal  but  that  it  is  a  luxury  better  suited 
to  those  who  have  sufficient  independent  income  so  that 
they  can  afford  to  displease  the  Powers-that-be  when  they 
stalk  thru  the  works  in  their  periodical  inspection. 

In  other  words,  this  type  of  superintendent  knows  that, 
if  the  general  manager  sees  anything  wrong  in  his  trip  thru 
the  factory  and  immediate  and  plausible  explanation  is  not 
forthcoming,  he  will  be  severely  censured.  This  leads  the 
superintendent  to  develop  any  latent  talent  he  may  have  for 
extemporaneous  excuses  and,  under  stress  of  circumstances, 
he  often  sacrifices  veracity  to  plausibility.  He  knows  that 
the  general  manager  wants  everything  to  be  all  right  thru- 
out  the  works,  and  he  does  his  best  to  satisfy  him.  His  cry 
is  eternally:  "Everything  is  all  right,"  regardless  of  facts. 
This  is  a  little  hard  on  the  stock-holders  at  times,  because 
many  things  are  dismissed  with  a  brief  and  inexact  explana- 
tion which,  if  thoroly  and  honestly  investigated,  would  have 
been  settled  very  differently,  with  considerable  resultant 
economy,  in  operation.  As  usual,  however,  the  higher-ups 
are  in  a  large  measure  to  blame. 

73 


74          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

EXPERIMENTS  OF  A   PRACTICAL  JOKER 

A  superintendent  of  my  acquaintance  who  was  in  charge 
of  a  large  plant  with  a  great  number  of  kilns  of  similar 
appearance,  was  blessed  with  a  particularly  irascible  "boss," 
who  made  a  tour  of  the  factory  regularly  once  a  week.  My 
friend,  who  was  something  of  a  wag,  used  to  lead  him  upon 
his  arrival  into  a  kiln  which  was  being  drawn  and  to  dilate 
at  great  length  upon  the  merits  of  the  brick  contained  therein, 
pointing  out  brick  of  exceptional  merit,  as  he  did  so.  After 
he  had  received  his  share  of  praise,  which  he  modestly  handed 
over  to  the  burner  who  accompanied  him,  he  would  lead  the 
general  manager  on  a  long  tour  of  the  other  kilns,  and  then 
by  devious  routes  back  to  the  first  kiln  again.  This  time, 
however,  he  would  make  voluble  excuses  for  the  miserable 
brick  and  point  out  examples  to  illustrate  the  faults  he  was 
describing.  The  general  manager  would  explode  with  wrath, 
and  the  consternation  of  the  wretched  head  burner  can  better 
be  imagined  than  described! 

This  same  superintendent  would  occasionally  play  a  similar 
trick  on  a  municipal  inspector  who  prided  himself  on  his 
accuracy  to  the  point  of  being  ridiculous,  returning  to  the 
piles  to  be  inspected,  brick  already  rejected,  and  then  standing 
by  with  a  sardonic  grin  on  his  face  while  the  inspector 
passed  them  as  all  right. 

In  both  cases  lack  of  standards  determined  with  scientific 
accuracy  was  responsible.  The  general  manager  didn't  know 
what  he  was  looking  for  or  what  he  ought  to  praise  or  to 
condemn.  He  had  a  general  idea  that  the  way  to  run  a  fac- 
tory was  to  reward  virtue  with  praise  and  to  discourage 
faulty  operation  with  criticism.  Alternate  pats  on  the  head 
and  spanks  somewhere  else,  may  bring  up  a  child  in  the  way 
he  should  go,  but  the  modern  administration  of  a  large  busi- 
ness demands  principles  considerably  more  involved. 

The  inspector  hadn't  analyzed  conditions.  He  was  doing 
his  rejecting  on  the  basis  of  how  the  brick  looked  to  him, 
determined  largely  by  how  he  felt  physically.  His  rejections 
at  seven  A.  M.  on  a  cold,  wet  morning  were  at  least  double 
what  they  were  after  dinner  when  the  sun  had  come  out. 
//  a  committee,  composed  of  the  representatives  of  the  cus- 
tomer and  of  the  factory,  had  analyzed  conditions  of  use  and 
of  manufacture  and,  acting  in  a  staff  capacity,  had  decided 
that  cracks  just  so  long,  just  so  deep  and  just  so  numerous 
were  permissible;  if  they  had  set  a  rattler,  absorption,  cross- 
breaking  and  shrinkage  standard,  and  had  decided  just  what 
malformation  the  use  to  which  the  brick  were  to  be  put  and 


Aids  to  the  Factory  Manager  75 

the  conditions  of  manufacture  would  allow,  the  owners  of 
that  factory  would  not  have  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  state 
of  that  inspector's  diaestion  and  disposition. 

HARASSED  SUPERINTENDENT   NEEDS   STAFF    HELP 

When  an  iron-clad  optimist  persists  in  his  cry  of :  "Every- 
thing is  all  right,'*  regardless  of  circumstances,  it  generally 
means  that  he  is  a  much  harassed  individual  nearly  at  his 
wits  end  thru  lack  of  either  brains  or  of  opportunity  and 


Kiln   Lining  Torn   Out   After  the   First   Burn   of  a   New   Kiln. 
Staff  Investigation  Would  Have  Prevented  This  Loss. 


time  to  find  out  just  what  is  the  status  of  affairs  and  why 
things  are  as  they  are.  A  number  of  years  ago  the  writer, 
while  investigating  a  property,  was  assured  by  the  superin- 
tendent that  their  kilns  produced  on  an  average  over  eighty- 
five  per  cent,  first  class  ware.  Reference  to  his  records 
showed  that  their  average  was  under  sixty.  The  superin- 
tendent didn't  know  what  his  percentages  were — and  he  didn't 
want  to  know.  Even  while  the  individual  kiln  results  were 
being  read  off  by  a  clerk,  he  kept  protesting  and  trumping 
up  excuses  and  indulging  in  wild  guesses  as  to  why  some 
kilns  were  total  losses.  He  was  afraid  to  face  the  facts  be- 
cause he  didn't  know  what  was  responsible  for  the  bad  re- 
sults; therefore,  he  lied.  He  needed  the  assistance  of  a 
staff. 


76          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

Suppose  a  regiment  of  German  soldiers,  charging  across 
No  Man's  Land,  in  the  face  of  a  British  barrage,  discovered 
that  their  rifles  were  of  the  wrong  pattern.  Suppose,  there- 
fore— if  your  imagination  is  capable  of  such  a  wild  flight — 
that  they  sat  down  under  the  fire  of  the  British  sixteen-inch 
guns,  whose  projectiles  weigh  a  ton,  with  machine  guns 
rattling  and  grenades  bursting  about  them,  and  tried  to  figure 
out  a  better  and  more  efficient  type  of  rifle.  Can  you  imagine 
it? 

Work  of  that  sort  is  not  done  in  the  heat  of  battle  by  the 
line  officers  of  the  regiment,  but  in  quiet  and  seclusion  by 
the  officers  of  the  staff.  Yet,  the  great  majority  of  superin- 
tendents are  expected  to  have  and  to  apply  all  the  knowledge, 
technical  and  practical,  of  the  mechanical  engineer,  of  the 
trained  electrician,  of  the  ceramic  expert,  of  the  mining  engi- 
neer and  of  the  construction  engineer,  together  with  the 
astuteness  of  the  financier,  the  sagacity  of  the  politician  and 
the  knowledge  of  labor  of  the  industrial  economist,  and  to 
run  the  factory  at  the  same  time! 

Any  counsel  which  the  superintendent  receives  from  the 
outside  is  generally  in  the  nature  of  legal  advice  as  to  how  to 
avoid  paying  an  indemnity  to  an  injured  employe,  or  else 
comes  from  an  engineer  salesman  who  wishes  him  to  buy  a 
particular  sort  of  equipment. 

ORGANIZING  THE   FACTORY  STAFF 

The  writer  will  never  forget  the  look  of  surprise  on  his 
"boss' "  face  the  first  time  he  asked  permission  to  call  in  a  con- 
sulting engineer  to  assist  in  the  solution  of  an  intricate  power 
plant  problem.  As  it  happened,  the  fifty  dollars  so  spent 
saved  the  purchase  of  a  three  thousand  dollar  engine,  but  it 
was  some  time  before  some  members  of  the  company  could 
quite  get  over  the  "sneaking"  feeling  that  their  superintendent 
was  a  "lemon"  "because  he  didn't  know  everything  by  in- 
stinct." 

Aside  from  calling  upon  expert  assistance  from  outside  the 
company,  much  is  gained  by  the  application  of  the  staff  prin- 
ciple within  the  organization.  The  development  and  success 
of  a  factory  staff,  however,  depends  as  much  upon  its  per- 
sonnel and  upon  the  personnel  of  the  management  as  it  does 
upon  the  method  of  organization.  Each  case  must  be  studied 
separately,  of  course,  and  an  organization  devised  to  meet  the 
particular  requirements  of  each  factory. 

In  addition,  the  principles  must  be  kept  firmly  in  mind  that 
all  members  of  the  staff  are  of  equal  rank  when  acting  in  a 
staff  capacity  and  that  the  chief  of  staff  must  act  almos': 


Aids  to  the  Factory  Manager 


77 


wholly  in  a  judicial  capacity.  These  laws  must  be  observed 
whether  the  staff  consists  of  three  illiterate  firemen  consulting 
behind  the  kiln  as  to  what  was  the  matter  with  the  last  burn, 
with  the  shift  "boss"  acting  as  chief-of-staff  and  deciding 
which  is  right,  or  whether  the  staff  consists  of  a  committee  of 
high-priced  executives  and  salesmanagers,  called  together 
from  half  the  world,  discussing  over  an  elaborate  banquet 
ways  and  means  of  outdistancing  competitors,  and  guided  by 


More    Than     Eleven     Hundred     Dollars    Were    Unnecessarily 
Expended    in    Constructing    This    Drier   Roof.      Com- 
petent   Counsel    Would    Have    Saved    the 
Company  That  Amount 

the  tact  and  diplomacy  of  one  of  our  multi-millionaire  cap- 
tains of  industry. 

A  staff  meeting  must  be  an  absolute  democracy  and  every 
member  must  have  his  right  to  be  heard.  The  chief-of-staff 
may  render  the  final  decision,  but  this  he  must  not  do  until 
all  have  been  heard.  He  must  display  no  favoritism  and,  if 
he  be  an  important  officer  of  the  company,  he  must  take  spe- 
cial pains  to  draw  out  each  member  and  to  subordinate  his 
own  personality  to  the  occasion.  Otherwise,  the  complete 
interchange  of  ideas,  which  makes  staff  investigation  of  in- 
dustrial problems  so  important,  cannot  be  secured.* 


*Staft*  organization  has  been  covered  in  greater  detail  in  the  Octo- 
ber, 1915,  number  of  the  "Engineering  Magazine,"  and  in  another 
article  which  will  appear  in  an  early  issue  of  the  same  magazine. 


78          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

WITH   STAFF  "MY    IDEA"  GIVES  WAY   TO   "OUR    IDEA" 

As  has  been  stated,  the  particular  sort  of  staff  adaptable 
to  a  plant  must  be  figured  out  on  the  ground.  The  principle 
in  all  cases  is  the  same,  that  of  furnishing  the  time  and 
opportunity,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  for  an 
investigation  of  the  technical,  mechanical  and  operating  prob- 
lems which  continually  confront  the  "line"  officials  of  a  fac- 
tory. With  a  properly  organized  staff,  the  iron-clad  optimist 
automatically  disappears.  The  superintendent  can  answer  his 
superiors  with  a  concise  statement  of  facts  and  figures  instead 
of  with  evasions.  Opinion  gives  way  to  knowledge  and  the 
decision  in  the  controversy  as  to  ways  and  means  of  opera- 
tion, goes  to  the  man  with  the  facts,  instead  of  the  man 
with  the  loudest  voice.  Shortly,  controversy  merges  into 
analytical  investigation,  to  which  each  member  of  the  com- 
mittee adds  his  knowledge  modestly  and  fully.  "My  idea" — 
the  bane  of  the  factory — is  supplanted  by  "our  idea." 
Jealousy  gives  way  to  co-operation  among  the  members  of 
the  organization  and,  as  a  result,  the  final  idea  adopted  has 
been  shaped  and  tested  until  it  represents  the  best  the  brains 
of  the  company  can  produce. 

The  results  secured  thru  staff  investigation  are  far  reaching 
and  represent  considerable  economies.  One  superintendent 
worked  out  mechanical  and  handling  devices  which  enabled 
him  with  a  single  sewer-pipe  press  to  turn  out  2,666  feet  of 
three-inch,  2,832  feet  of  four-inch  and  1,684  feet  of  six-inch 
pipe  per  hour.  Another  saved  over  $1,500  in  one  year  by 
conducting  an  investigation  into  the  belting  best  adapted  to 
his  needs  and  $1,100  more  by  running  a  series  of  experiments 
to  determine  the  most  economical  oil  to  use.  At  a  paving- 
brick  factory  the  rattler  loss  was  decreased  from  twenty  to 
sixteen  per  cent,  by  means  of  staff  investigation.  At  another 
plant  the  burning  time  was  cut  nearly  in  half. 

APPLIES  TO  CONSTRUCTION  AS  WELL  AS  OPERATION 

Staff  investigation  is  quite  as  important  in  constructing  the 
factory  as  in  its  operation.  The  first  photograph  shows  the 
fire-brick  torn  from  the  wall  and  flash-wall  of  a  kiln  after 
the  first  burn.  Staff  investigation  would  have  counseled  the 
use  of  a  different  sort  of  brick  and  several  thousand  dollars 
in  repairs  would  have  been  saved.  The  second  photograph 
illustrates  the  waste  of  about  $1,100  in  the  construction  of  a 
drier  roof.  Competent  counsel  would  have  saved  the  company 
this  expenditure.  These,  however,  are  only  minor  examples. 

Every  clayworker  is  familiar  with  cases  of  companies  being 


Aids  to  the  Factory  Manager  79 

formed  and  factories  erected  only  to  find  that  the  clay  de- 
posit was  unsuitable..  The  writer  knew  of  one  $175,000  fac- 
tory built  on  no  greater  evidence  than  the  chemical  analyses 
of  two  lumps  of  clay — one  stolen  from  a  factory  fifty  miles 
distant  and  another  taken  from  an  out-crop  on  the  promoter's 
land.  These  analyses  showed  that  both  samples  contained 
silica,  alumina,  lime  and  iron — especially  iron — and  the  mere 


Staff   Investigation   Resulted   in   Later  Eliminating  This   Loss 

By    Changing    the    Method    of    Hacking    and    the 

System  of  Pulling  the  Drier 

fact  that  the  promoter's  sample  had  twice  as  much  iron  as 
the  sample  from  the  going  concern  did  not  daunt  the  sub- 
scribers to  the  stock  in  the  least.  'There  was  only  about 
ten  per  cent,  of  iron  anyway.  What  difference  could  a  little 
thing  like  that  make?"  They  have  since  found  out! 

About  five  years  ago,  another  factory  was  erected  at  a 
cost  of  $750,000.  It  was  an  elaborate  affair  equipped  with 
an  enormous  continuous  kiln,  company  houses  and  so  forth. 
After  the  money  was  spent,  it  was  discovered  that  only  about 
six  feet  of  their  shale  bank  was  suitable  for  the  manufacture 
of  paving-brick  and  that  that  dipped  into  a  hill  of  solid  rock 
at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees.  They  shut  down  and  from 
the  last  reports  were  seeking  an  honest  junk  dealer.  Ex- 
amples could  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  but  that  is  unneces- 


80          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

sary.     Every  clayworker  knows  of  several  in  his  own  neigh- 
borhood. 

HOW   TO   AVOID   COSTLY    MISTAKES 

If  you  are  to  avoid  costly  mistakes,  the  procedure  is  this: 
Organize,  from  the  president  down,  in  such  a  way  that  you 
first  bring  to  bear  upon  any  problem  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances,  all  the  brains  in  your  company.  Turn  anyone 
who  insists  on  playing  "Big  Injun"  or  "Great  I  Am"  over  to 
the  sergeant-at-arms.  Face  the  situation  honestly  and,  if  you 
need  help,  send  for  it.  The  decision  then  is  made  in  the  light 
of  the  best  knowledge  available.  Mistakes  will  be  reduced  to 
a  minimum  and  the  ingenuity  which  will  develop  from  unex- 
pected sources  will  surprise  you. 

WRITTEN   STANDARDS  AND    INSTRUCTIONS 

This  is  a  matter  which  has  been  mentioned  before  in  con- 
nection with  the  burning  and  the  analytical  time  study,  and 
which  is  exceedingly  important.  Most  executives  will  recall 
long  conferences  which  resulted  in  no  action,  or  in  good  reso- 
lutions only.  The  company's  time  was  spent  but  the  company 
received  no  adequate  return.  Even  where  a  definite  decision 
is  reached,  the  neglect  to  impart  this  decision  to  the  members 
of  the  organization  who  are  to  carry  out  the  work,  will  some- 
times render  the  conference  a  waste  of  time.  Again,  when 
this  step  has  been  properly  taken,  lack  of  attention  by  those 
in  authority,  lack  of  follow  up  or  lack  of  clarity  in  imparting 
the  instructions  to  subordinates  will  nullify  the  effect  of  de- 
cisions which  would  perhaps  have  saved  the  company  thou- 
sands of  dollars. 

Similarly,  in  loosely  or  improperly  organized  staff  inves- 
tigation, steps  in  the  experiment  which,  if  reduced  to  writing, 
would  have  saved  others  uselessly  traversing  the  same  ground, 
are  forgotten,  and  the  time  of  later  investigators  is  wasted. 
When  a  new  foreman  is  hired  in  any  department,  he  must 
make  most  of  the  mistakes  of  his  predecessor  before  he  is 
sure  that  he  is  running  his  crew  to  the  best  advantage.  Fac- 
tories become  training  grounds  for  superintendents  and  the 
stockholders  pay  the  bills.  When  a  man  dies  or  departs  to  a 
rival  concern,  he  takes  with  him  his  experience,  or  rather  the 
experience  which  is  by  right  the  company's,  since,  the  company 
paid  dearly  for  it  in  spoiled  ware  and  in  numerous  other  ways, 
leaving  the  company  holding  the  sack. 

The  remedy  is,  of  course,  the  reduction  of  all  decisions  to 
writing  and  the  issuance  of  all  instructions  in  writing.  In 


Aids  to  the  Factory  Manager  81 

this  way,  once  a  best  method  of  meeting  a  given  set  of  condi- 
tions or  of  performing  a  certain  piece  of  work  is  determined, 
it  becomes  a  permanent  record  of  the,  company.  The  ex- 
pense of  solving  the  problem  does  not  have  to  be  incurred 
more  than  once.  Costly  mistakes  are  not  repeated  and 
the  concern  ceases  to  be  the  personal  experimental  school 
of  executives.  Furthermore,  the  chance  of  misunderstanding 
orders  is  practically  eliminated.  Orders  are  considered  more 
carefully  before  they  are  issued  and  responsibility  is  fixed. 


A  Drier  Badly  in   Need  of   Expert  Analysis.     Improper  De- 
sign and  the   Lack  of  Regulation  Were  Sending    From 
Ten  to  Twenty  Per  Cent,  of  the  Brick 
Back  to  the  Machine 

Employes  supplied  with  orders,  carefully  considered  in  detail 
and  clearly  expressed  in  writing,  do  not  waste  time  hunting 
foremen,  and  materials  in  experiments.  The  economies  effected 
are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  trouble  and  expense  incurred 
as  any  clayworker  will  find  who  uses  the  system  intelligently 
and  consistently. 

INTENSIVE   LABOR   DEVELOPMENT 

The  general  run  of  factories  hire,  or  refuse  to  hire,  what- 
ever turns  up  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  looking  for  a 
job.  The  action  depends  usually  upon  whether  the  foremen 
feel  they  are  likely  to  need  a  man  sometime  during  the  day. 
Suppose  you  bought  your  clay  in  the  same  way,  depending 
upon  some  farmer,  whom  you  did  not  know,  driving  up  from 


82          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

some  part  of  the  country  with  which  you  were  unfamiliar, 
with  a  wagon  load,  when  the  spirit  moved  him,  or  when  he 
needed  the  money.  If  you  depended  upon  taking  what  chance 
brought  you  and  then  mixed  it  all  together  without  regard 
to  what  it  was  fit  for,  how  long  would  you  stay  in  business? 
And  yet,  that  is  exactly  what  you  are  doing  with  your 
labor,  which  costs  you  from  eight  to  twelve  times  as  much  as 
your  clay. 

Labor  shortage,  strikes,  damage  to  machinery,  buildings  and 
equipment,  damage  suits,  wasted  material,  spoiled  ware  and 
infinite  inefficiency  are  traceable  directly  to  the  prevailing 
loose  methods  of  purchasing  labor. 

A  few  of  the  more  progressive  have  realized  this.  H.  R. 
Straight  of  Iowa,  a  paving-brick  manufacturer  of  Illinois, 
and  a  few  others  of  like  foresight,  have  made  a  special  study 
of  the  causes  underlying  labor  shortage.  Mr.  Straight  has 
set  forth  his  premium  plan  and  the  results  obtained  in  "Brick 
and  Clay  Record."*  The  paving-brick  manufacturer  told  the 
writer  recently  that  he  had  experienced  no  labor  shortage 
during  the  past  summer,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  most  brick 
manufacturers  of  the  district  were  paying  two  hundred  miles 
railroad  fare  to  prospective  employes,  were  giving  them  free 
transportation  from  their  homes  on  motor  trucks  and  were 
spending  hundreds  of  dollars  in  newspaper  advertising. 

STOP  LOSS  BY  CAREFUL  HIRING 

Strikes  are  often  caused  by  lack  of  care  in  the  selection  of 
employes,  as  every  clayworker  knows.  Lawyers  will  tell  you 
that  there  is  a  regular  profession  which  grows  fat  on  the 
proceeds  of  damage  suits  vvon  from  corporations — men  and 
women  who  go  from  place  to  place,  secure  employment  and 
then  pull  off  a  carefully  staged  accident  which  results  in  a 
"back  injury"  or  some  other  complaint  which  will  excite  the 
sympathy  of  a  jury,  but  which  is  difficult  to  diagnose  and 
impossible  to  disprove. 

The  cost  in  damaged  machinery,  wasted  material  and 
spoiled  ware  due  to  breaking  in  a  new  employe,  averages  from 
forty  to  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  per  man,  depending 
upon  his  aptitude  and  his  opportunity.  If  you  don't  believe 
this,  stop  and  think  of  the  mistakes  you  made  yourself  when 
you  began  work.  One  man  who  considered  such  a  statement 
ridiculous,  finally  admitted  that  during  his  first  week  of  em- 
ployment in  a  large  factory  he  cost  his  employers  more  than 


*Pase  1119,  June  20th,  1916,  Issue. 


Aids  to  the  Factory  Manager  83 

fifteen  hundred  dollars  by  turning  an  oil  cock  the  wrong  way 
and  dumping  a  large  tank  of  oil  in  the  river.  It  doesn't  take 
a  very  large  mistake  on  the  part  of  a  green  fireman  to  cost 
the  firm  a  hundred  dollars  in  spoiled  product  or  in  wasted 
coal,  and  a  two  hundred  pound  "hunky,"  accustomed  to  han- 


IMPERIAL  BRICK  COMPANY 

STANDARD   INSTRUCTION 


No. 


Subject Date_ 

To 


Signed 


NOTE — If  any  point  in  above  is  not  clear,  take   it  up  with 
Mr .    at  earliest  opportunity. 


Form    of    Standard    Instruction.      Such    an    Order    Issued    to 
Any   Department   is   Filed    by  the   Recipient  and   Re- 
mains in  Force  Until  Countermanded  in  Writing 

dling  pig  iron,  can  spoil  a  whole  lot  of  sewer-pipe  or  terra 
cotta  in  nine  hours! 

FIGURE  SAVING   FROM   SCIENTIFIC  SELECTION 

If  you  employ  two  hundred  men  and,  in  order  to  maintain 
that  force,  are  hiring  six  hundred  men  each  year  (a  labor 
turnover  of  three  hundred  per  cent  is  by  no  means  unusual), 
it  is  costing  you  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

If,  by  selecting  your  employes  scientifically,  studying  the 
local  labor  market,  paying  a  bonus  for  regular  attendance, 
and  by  doing  as  many  of  the  things  which  have  been  generally 
classed  together  under  the  head, of  "welfare  work"  as  com- 
mon sense  permits,  you  could  reduce  this  turnover  to  one 
hundred  per  cent.,  you  would  save  at  least  twenty  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  It  is  worth  going  after.  Figure  it  out  in 
your  own  plant  and  see  if  it  isn't. 

You  may  not  be  able  to  afford  an  organized  employment  de- 
partment, altho,  if  you  figure  out  exactly  how  much  time 


84          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

your  superintendent,  foremen  and  office  lorce  are  spending 
in  useless  and  rambling  interviews  each  day,  you  will  find 
that  an  amount  of  time  which  will  come  surprisingly  near  to 
that  of  one  man,  is  being  so  spent  every  day  in  the  year. 
Take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  interviewing  prospective 
employes  is  a  job  for  a  trained  man,  and  that  not  one  fore- 
man in  twenty  knows  how  to  examine  a  workman,  and  you 
will  find  that  you  don't  need  to  have  more  than  two  or  three 
hundred  men  to  be  able  to  afford  an  employment  department. 

WELFARE  WORK   HELPS  SOLVE  THE   LABOR   PROBLEM 

Organized  "Safety  First,"  company  doctors  and  mutual 
benefit  and  hospital  associations  are  the  worst  foe  of  the 
ambulance-chasing  lawyer,  and  one  adverse  verdict  by  a 
sympathetic  jury  will  cost  more  than  all  the  expense,  time 
and  trouble  of  the  organization  end  of  maintenance  for  many 
years. 

Profit  sharing  is  looked  upon  as  the  bulwark  against  social 
revolution  and  the  government  ownership  of  corporations,  as 
well  as  a  promoter  of  efficiency,  by  taking  the  workers  into 
the  firm  and,  as  such,  is  being  widely  adopted.  Welfare  work 
also  covers  old  age  pensions,  which  are  often  more  than  self 
supporting  since  they  encourage  long  employment  with  one 
company,  discourage  strikes  and  prevent  the,  inefficiencies  and 
accidents  which  are  the  result  of  kind  hearted  employers  re- 
taining old  employes  in  jobs  for  which  they  are  too  feeble. 
Under  this  head  come  also  all  the  movements  for  ameliorating 
the  condition  of  the  working  man,  such  as  better  housing, 
building  and  loan  associations,  garden  making  contests,  com- 
pany athletic  teams,  and  so  forth,  which  tend  to  keep  the  em- 
ployes contented  and  in  good  health. 

The  labor  problem  has  been  a  serious  one  during  the  past 
year.  Next  year  the  shortage  will  be  even  greater  if  the  war 
continues.  Every  manufacturer  should  give  the  matter  serious 
consideration,  should  study  his  local  conditions  and  should 
take  steps  to  meet  a  state  of  affairs  which  is  likely  to  affect  his 
business  vitally. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Principles  and  Results 

A  NUMBER  OF  YEARS  AGO,  the  writer  spent  an  even- 
•^^  ing  with  a  millionaire  whose  fortune  had  been  made  ty 
extracting  the  valuable  metals  from  the  smoke  of  smelters 
which  had  previously  been  spread  over  the  landscape  to  the 
detriment  of  crops  and  the  disgust  of  the  population.  Tin 
cans,  which  once  littered  the  copper  country,  have  now  be- 
come valuable  to  reclaim  the  copper  from  the  impregnated 
streams  which  flow  from  the  mines.  Cedar  stumps,  which 
were  left  as  useless  when  the  Northwest  was  logged,  are 
now  being  made  into  shingles.  Parts  of  slaughtered  animals, 
with  which  the  American  farmer  formerly  rendered  the 
countryside  an  offense  to  decent  nostrils,  have  assisted  in 
piling  up  the  $100,000,000  surplus  which  Armour  and  Com- 
pany have  accumulated  since  1900,  as  everyone  who  has 
visited  the  stock  yards  knows. 

There  is  money  in  the  elimination  of  waste,  but  most 
manufacturers  are  too  busy  turning  out  their  product  to 
study  the  matter  as  it  should  be  studied.  The  production  is 
the  big  thing;  the  driblets  which  seep  away  thru  innumerable 
channels  seem  relatively  unimportant.  The  amount  and 
quality  of  the  output  makes  a  big  noise.  The  eternal  drip, 
drip,  drip  of  the  waste  is  lost  in  the  roar  of  the  machinery. 
And  therein  lies  its  very  danger.  Quietly,  subtly  and  con- 
tinuously the  "rats"  of  waste  steal  away  to  their  holes  with 
the  profits  of  the  business.  No  one  notices  them  and,  at  the 
annual  meeting,  the  stockholders  are  told  that  it  has  been  a 
"bad  business  year." 

WASTE    ELIMINATION    IS    AN    ATTITUDE   OF    MIND 

It  does  not  mean  that  the  president  of  the  company  should 
spend  his  time  picking  up  and  straightening  rusty  nails  about 
the  plant,  that  the  treasurer  should  spend  a  half  hour  every 
day  slitting  envelopes  with  a  paper-knife  to  save  spending  a 

85 


86          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

cent  for  a  scratch  pad  or  that  the  superintendent  should 
follow  his  men  around  turning  off  electric  lights.  Such 
matters  may  be  worth  the  attention  of  the  office  boy  but  the 


Photo  No.  1.     A  Waste  of   Material  in  the  Metal  Scrap  Heap 

Which  Was  Swept  from  the  Machine  Shop  with 

Dirt,  Shavings  and  Refuse  of  all  Sorts 

officers  of  the  company  are  paid  to  perform  more  important 
duties. 

It  does  mean,  however,  that  a  careful  and  painstaking 
study  should  be  made  of  all  wastes  about  a  plant,  in  the  order 
of  their  importance,  by  someone  fitted  by  training  and  ability 
for  the  work.  A.  V.  Bleininger,  in  running  heat  balances  on 
a  number  of  kilns,  found  that  the  coal  which  was  lost  by  be- 
ing carried  out  to  the  dump  with  the  ashes  amounted  to 
eighteen  per  cent.,  of  the  theoretical  coal  required  to  burn  the 
ware  in  a  building  brick  kiln,  to  thirty-four  per  cent,  for  a 
paving-brick  kiln,  and  to  eighty  per  cent,  on  a  sewer-pipe  kiln 
at  three  different  factories.  How  much  of  this  could  have 
been  saved  is,  of  course,  problematical,  but  how  many  clay 
workers  know  what  proportion  of  their  coal  is  reaching  the 
dump  partially  or  wholly  unconsumed? 

VARIOUS    KINDS    OF    WASTE    ILLUSTRATED 

Wastes  may  be  of  several  sorts,  but  of  whatever  sort  com- 
petent staff  investigation  will  bring  them  to  light — and  like 
rats  they  won't  stand  publicity.  The  first  photograph  among 
the  accompanying  illustrations  shows  a  waste  of  material  in 
the  metal  scrap  which  was  swept  from  a  machine  shop  with 


Principles  and  Results  87 

dirt,  shavings  and  refuse  of  all  sorts.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  pile  contains  castings,  turnings  and  wrought  iron.  Every 
one  of  these  commodities  brings  a  different  price  from  the 
dealer  in  old  metals  and  three  separate  bins,  one  for  each  sort, 
would  not  only  have  improved  the  appearance  of  the  factory 
but  would  have  increased  the  return  from  this  by-product. 

The  second  photograph  shows  a  waste  of  material  and  of 
labor.  The  pile  of  shale  and  sand  rock  is  part  of  a  mass  of 
approximately  three  thousand  cubic  yards  which  originally 
occurred  as  overburden  but  -which  was  thrown  back  to  clear 
the  shale  at  a  cost  of  about  $1,200.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
shale  face,  at  the  left,  has  nearly  reached  this  pile  which  will 
have  to  be  moved  back  again.  Just  how  long  this  concern 
will  keep  up  this  rehandling  instead  of  figuring  out  a  perman- 
ent method  of  disposal,  or  using  up  the  material  gradually  for 
the  manufacture  of  lo^-grade  wares,  is  in  doubt. 

The  third  picture  represents  the  correction  of  a  former 
method  of  mold  handling,  which  wasted  labor  in  searching  for 


Photo    No.  2.      Labor  and   Material  Waste   Is  Shown   Here 
Dumping  Overburden  Too  Near  the  Face  of  Shale 
Bank,  and  in  Not  Using  it  Up  Gradually 
in   the    Manufacture  of   Ware 


a  mold  lost  among  five  thousand  others  and  material  in  mak- 
ing up  new  molds  when  the  one  lost  could  not  be  found.    It 
will  be  noted  that  each  bin  and  each  mold  has  been  numbered. 
The  fourth  picture  tells  its  own  story.     It  is  a  three-man 


88          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

dump  car,  to  say  nothing  of  the  mule.  Two  men  tip  up  the 
car  while  the  third  shovels  out  the  material.  The  mule  holds 
himself  up.  The  only  material  wasted  is  the  mule-feed. 

The  remedy,  as  has  been  stated,  is  staff  investigation.  You 
may  catch  a  glimpse  of  how  much  you  are  wasting  and  how 
much  you  can  save  if  you  will  forget  the  factory  and  what  it 
is  making  and  wander  thru  looking  only  for  rat  holes.  Try 
it  some  day. 

THE    UNDERLYING    PRINCIPLES 

One  evening  when  the  writer  was  discussing  the  principles 
of  scientific  management  with  an  engineer  who  is  perhaps  as 
thoroly  grounded  as  any  man  in  the  country,  he  endeavored 
to  tabulate  these  principles.  My  friend  watched  me  for  a 
few  minutes  and  then  with  that  dryness  of  humor  which  is 
the  delight  of  all  who  are  privileged  to  know  him,  remarked  : 
"Don't  become  a  Methodist."  "They  are  all  right  in  religion, 
but  when  an  engineer  tries  to  reduce  what  he  knows  to 


Photo   No.   3.     The   Correction   of   a   Former    Method   of   Mold 

Handling  in  a  Fire-brick  Plant,  Which  Wasted   Labor  in 

Searching    for    a    Mold    Lost    Among    Five    Thousand 

Others    and    in    Material    Making    Up    New    Molds 

When    the    One    Lost    Could    Not    Be    Found 

mottoes  to  hang  on  the  wall  of  his   office,  he'd  better  drop 
engineering  and  take  up  preaching." 

There    is    great    danger    in    reducing    knowledge    to    "rules 
of  thumb,"  because  once  this  is  done  the  author  of  the  rules 


Principles  and  Results 


89 


—having  once  committed  his  belief  to  writing — feels  that  he 
must  forever  defend  those-  beliefs,  even  as  our  political  par- 
ties defend  their  platforms.  As  a  result,  the  engineer  who 


Photo    No.   4.     A   Three-man    Dump   Car,  to   Say   Nothing   of 

the  Mule.     The  Only  Material  Wasted  in  This 

Case   Is  the  Mule's  Feed 

has  once  enunciated  his  beliefs  is  induced  to  seek  always 
the  facts  which  prove  his  contentions  and  to  ignore  all  other 
facts.  This  leads  to  biased  judgment  and  often  to  disaster. 

The  writer  realizes  this  danger,  but  nevertheless  feels  that 
a  review  at  this  time  of  the  points  which  he  has  endeavored 
to  make  in  the  preceding  pages  will  perhaps  accentuate  those 
which  are  important  and  will  add  to  the  clarity  of  the  whole 
exposition.  Before  so  doing,  however,  he  feels  that  it  would 
be  well  to  quote  a  statement  made  by  Edward  D.  Jones, 
Professor  of  Commerce  and  Industry  of  the  University  of 
Michigan,  concerning  the  source  of  the  term  "Scientific 
Management." 

"The  pure  method  of  science  is  the  original  source  of  in- 
spiration of  Scientific  Management.  Very  briefly  and  inade- 
quately expressed,  it  is  somewhat  as  follows  : 

"1.  The  first  step  is  to  analyze  a  subject  into  parts;  and 
to  deal  with  the  subject  a  part  at  a  time. 

"2.  The  second  step  is  to  proceed  with  the  collection  of 
data,  in  this  analytical  form,  until  it  is  certain  that  the  rec- 
ord fully  records  the  law  of  the  subject,  whatever  that  law 


90          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

may  be ;  and  further,  until  accidental  errors  and  other  varia- 
tions due  to  chance  are  reduced  to  negligible  or  definitely 
calculable  proportions. 

"3.  Third,  the  data  is  to  be  so  arranged  that  it  will  be 
brought  to  bear  as  fully  and  clearly  as  possible  upon  the 
object  of  the  study. 

"4.    An  inference  is  made,  or  a  new  relationship  discovered. 

"5.  The  fifth  and  last  step  is  to  give  to  the  new  inference 
a  thoro  testing,  by  comparing  it  with  known  facts,  to  ascer- 
tain whether  it  is  truth  or  error.  If  the  new  inference  stands 
the  tests,  it  is  no  longer  considered  an  hypothesis,  but  a 
truth." 

As  one  man — born  East  of  the  Rhine — expressed  it :  "Ven 
you  see  somding  you  don'd  understand,  you  bicks  it  all 
apardt  into  a  lot  of  liddle  bieces.  Den  you  look  at  der 
liddle  bieces  vun  by  vun,  and  glassify  dem  in  heaps.  Und 
der  biggest  heap — dot  is  it!"  The  scientist  may  be  ridiculed 
by  the  self-styled  practical  man  but  the  successful  man, 
consciously  or  unconsciously  makes  use  of  the  scientific  meth- 
od and,  no  matter  how  much  we  may  laugh  at  the  be- 
spectacled professor,  we  all  respect  our  Edisons,  our  Ham- 
monds and  our  Henry  Fords — the  scientists  who  have  made 
good. 

PRINCIPLE    UNDERLYING    SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT 

The  scientific  method  then,  is  the  principle  underlying 
Scientific  Management.  Various  engineers  have  different 
methods  of  applying  the  principle  and  have  enunciated  their 
methods,  each  in  the  form  which  he  believes  is  best  calcu- 
lated to  explain  his  own  application  of  the  principle.  These 
codes  are  necessarily  somewhat  vague  because  each  particu- 
lar business,  nay,  each  particular  department  and  operation 
must  be  studied  separately  and  the  remedy  applied  which 
will  insure  the  maximum  operating  efficiency  of  that  opera- 
tion, department  and  business,  at  all  times.  In  doing  this, 
there  is  brought  to  bear  on  the  problem  all  the  knowledge 
of  the  workman,  the  foreman,  the  superintendent,  the  mana- 
ger and  of  the  engineer.  The  greater  the  knowledge  of 
each,  the  more  perfect  the  final  result.  The  engineer  is  not 
a  critic  but  an  expert  in  the  art  of  organizing  your  forces 
for  victory  by  the  application  of  the  principle  and  its  elab- 
orations. 

MODERN    INDUSTRIAL   ENGINEERING  TABULATED 
For  the  purpose,  then,  of  reviewing  the  application  oi  the 
principle  as  set  forth  in  the  preceding  pages  and,  in  order 


Principles  and  Results  91 

to  bring  out  more  clearly  and  directly  the  applies  lion  of 
the  scientific  method  to  business,  the  following  tabulation 
has  been  prepared: 

1.  STANDARDIZATION  of   Machinery,  equipment  and 
conditions,  as  described  in  detail  in  the  preceding  pages. 

2.  ROUTING,  insuring  that  the  product  is  moving  in  the 
most  economical  manner  with  the  fewest,  shortest  and  least 
damaging  moves  possible. 

3.  CENTRALIZED  CONTROL,  including: 
1.     Setting  Standards  of  Accomplishment. 

Scheduling — planning  to  attain  these  standards. 
Despatching — making    sure,    step    by    step,    that    the 
standards  are  attained. 

4.  Stores  and  Material  Control — to  integrate  with  the 
above  and  so  insure  the  presence  of  the  right  thing 
at  the  right  time. 

5.  Release  of  executives  from  details  of  operation  by 
means  of  the  Exception  Principle. 

4.  ANALYTICAL  COST  SYSTEM. 

1.  Graphic  comparison  of  all  important  operations. 

2.  The   Ratchet    Principle — preventing   the   loss   of   an 
advantage  once  it  is  gained. 

3.  Immediate    Returns — on    all    important    operations, 
allowing   the   application   of   correctives   in  time  to 
save  the  maximum  amount  of  loss. 

5.  WASTE  ELIMINATION.     Application  of  the  scien- 
tific method  to  losses  of  every  sort,  insuring  their  sure  re- 
duction to  the  minimum. 

6.  STAFF    INVESTIGATION    OF    ALL    PROBLEMS 

OF   ADMINISTRATION,    SALES    AND    MANU- 
FACTURE. 

1.  The   Committee   System. 

2.  Harmony  Meetings. 

3.  Development  of   Specialists. 

4.  Expert   Counsel. 

7.  'DEFINITE     MANAGEMENT— as     contrasted     with 

casual  methods  of  control  and  organization : 
1.  Exact  and  clearly  stated  limitations  of  Line  Au- 
thority— preventing  the  conflict  of  orders,  loss  of 
energy  wasted  in  the  efforts  of  one  executive  to 
encroach  upon  the  preserves  of  another  executive, 
and  the  various  other  inefficiencies  of  the  Feudal 
type  of  organization. 


92          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

2.  Functional  Foremanship — which  combines  Staff  spe- 
cialization with  Line  executive  powers  in  the  same 
individual  or  in  different  individuals  with  such  con- 
cert of  action  that  the  effect  is  equally  effective. 

8.  INTENSIVE   LABOR   DEVELOPMENT. 

1.  Labor  Turnover   Reduction. 

2.  Organized  Employment. 

3.  Safety  First. 

4.  Health    Insurance,    Hospitals,    etc. 

5.  Welfare  Work. 

6.  Profit  Sharing. 

9.  ANALYTICAL    TIME    STUDY.      The    scientific    de- 
terminations  of   exactly  how   much  work   should   be   turned 
out  by  each  employe. 

10.  THE  BONUS  REWAR'D,  involving  the  payment  of 
each   worker — laborer,   foreman,  superintendent,  salesman  or 
manager — in  exact  proportions  to  what  he  accomplishes  for 
the  company. 

11.  WRITTEN  INSTRUCTIONS  AND  STANDARDS. 
The  preservation  in  permanent  form  of  all  facts  leading  up 
to  decisions  and  of  all  decisions,  either  Staff  or  Line  reached 
by  the  executives  and  the  experts  of  the  company. 

12.  MODERN    BUSINESS    IDEALS,   implying  that   su- 
preme  common    sense,   which   has   a   regard    for   the   highest 
business  ethics,  believes  in  the  fair  deal  toward  labor,  com- 
petitors and  customers,  possesses  a  willingness  to  exchange 
ideas  with  others  and  an  open  mind  toward  new  ideas  and 
toward  technical  and  expert  counsel,  and  is  willing  to  parti- 
cipate in  personally,  and  to  support  progressive  movements 
of  real  merit  and  which  practices  to  the  best  of  its  ability 
what  has  been  characterized  as  the  "golden  rule  in  business." 

WHAT    HAS    BEEN    ACCOMPLISHED 

The  principles  of  Scientific  Management  have  been  applied 
as  a  whole  or  in  part,  by  the  writer  and  by  his  friends — 
whose  work  he  has  had  an  opportunity  to  investigate  thoroly 
— to  at  least  ten  different  clay  plants.  He  has  furthermore 
taken  an  active  part  as  engineer  and  as  supervising  engineer 
in  the  installation  of  efficiency  methods  in  industries  whose 
nature  differed  widely,  and  has  studied  the  results  of  the 
application  of  the  principles  to  mines,  railroads,  depart- 
ment stores  and  to  manufacturing  establishments  of  all 
sorts.  As  a  result,  he  is  convinced  that  there  is  no  doubt 
as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  principles. 


Principles  and  Results  93 

There  have  been  failures  in  the  application,  of  course,  but 
in  this  he  feels  that  C.  Bertrand  Thompson's  analysis  is  sub- 
stantially correct.  The  faults  have  been  those  of  the  man- 
agement and  of  the  consulting  engineer.  There  would  have 
been  fewer  failures  under  the  first  head  if  engineers  would 
follow  more  closely  Frederick  W.  Taylor's  dictum  and  re- 
fuse to  do  work  for  those  who  were  constitutionally  unfitted 
for  it.  Aside  from  such  errors  of  judgment,  failures  on  the 
part  of  the  engineer  have  been  due  principally  to  lack  of 
personality  and  to  inexperience — the  inability,  as  Mr.  Taylor 
phrased  it,  "to  recognize  the  diseases  of  the  men,  of  the 
foreman,  of  the  superintendents,  of  the  management,  of  the 
directors  and  of  the  stockholders  before  they  occurred  and 
to  cure  them  before  they  developed." 

The  time  to  cure  labor  troubles  is  when  a  little  group  of 
men  are  consulting  furtively  together  in  the  shadow  of  a 
wall,  or  when  a  workman  of  an  ordinarily  sunny  disposition 
greets  you  with  the  face  of  a  wooden  doll — not  when  trouble 
is  organized  and  the  strikers'  committee  waits  upon  the  man- 
ager. The  time  to  labor  with  a  foreman  is  when  he  eyes 
you  askance — not  when  he  throws  up  his  job  after  making 
arrangements  with  a  rival  concern.  And  the  directoral  mind, 
whose  optimism  or  despair  is  traceable  on  occasion  even  to 
the  rate  of  exchange  in  Argentine  or  to  the  fluctuations  of 
the  London  stock  market,  can  be  interpreted  only  after 
years  of  association  and  careful  study. 

Successful  results  are  secured  not  by  youngsters  fresh 
from  college,  or  by  hide-bound  and  prejudiced  superinten- 
dents trying  to  apply  half  understood  principles  read  in  some 
book.  The  rvork  must  be  done  slowly,  carefully  and  under- 
standingly  by  trained  men. 

Scientific  Management  involves  the  education  of  all  con- 
cerned. No  man  living  can  assimilate  a  langage  or  com- 
prehend a  race  in  an  instant  by  buying  a  dictionary  or 
by  stealing  an  historical  treatise.  Each  step  must  be 
thoroly  understood  before  the  next  step  is  taken.  Cause 
must  be  linked  to  effect.  Time  is  an  essential. 

Neither  is  it  a  thing  to  be  entered  into  lightly.  Exactly 
what  is  contemplated  must  be  understood  thoroly  by  the 
owners  and  by  the  executives.  The  results  obtainable,  how- 
ever, are  infinitely  desirable — to  the  workman,  to  the  execu- 
tive and  to  the  stockholders.  The  principles  are  incontro- 
vertible. Their  proper  application  requires  time,  p'atience 
and  skill.  The  concern  which  would  enjoy  their  benefit  must 


94          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

be  prepared  to  sacrifice  the  immediate  to  the  ultimate,  to 
share  its  gains  with  its  workmen  and  to  play  the  game 
straight — for  the  good  of  its  stockholders.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances there  can  be  no  failure. 

EXAMPLES  OF   RESULTS  OBTAINED 

A  few  typical  examples  of  the  economies  effected  by  the 
scientific  application  of  the  principles  of  industrial  efficiency, 

Nov.    Dec.  Jan.    Feb.  ffar  Apr  flay  (June  (July   Auq.  Sep. 


CON 

TROL 

S.    Plf. 

GRAPH 
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What  Scientific    Management   Did   for  One   Factory   in    Nine 
Months 


for  whose  correctness  the  writer  is  able  to  vouch,  are  given 
below : 

Sewer-pipe  Factory — eighteen  months  work.  Labor  cost 
cut  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent.  Output  increased  fifty  per 
cent.  Quality  of  product  increased  twenty  per  cent. 

Combination  Plant — six  months  work.  Cost  of  paving- 
brick  .  production  cut  Output  increased  thirty  per  cent. 
Burning  time  cut  over  forty  per  cent.  Quality  increased  thir- 
teen per  cent.  Sewer-pipe  labor  cost  cut  nine  per  cent,  out- 


Principles  and  Results  95 

put  increased  sixteen  per  cent,  quality  improved  eleven 
per  cent. 

Paving-brick  Factory — labor  cost  cut  fifteen  per  cent. 
Output  doubled.  Percentages  increased  thirty-eight  per  cent, 
and  rattler  loss  lowered  from  nineteen  to  sixteen  per  cent. 

Fire-brick  Factory — cost  of  production  reduced  thirty  per 
cent.  Output  increased  thirty-three  per  cent,  without  in- 
creasing the  equipment.  Percentage  increased  seven  per  cent. 

Hollow-ware  Plant — cost  of  production  cut  seventeen  per 
cent.  Percentage  of  first-class  ware  increased  twenty-five 
per  cent. 

Automobile  Accessory  Plant — economies  affected  amount- 
ing to  over  $200,000  per  year. 

Steel  Mill — cost  of  grinding  switches  reduced  from  $0.21 
to  $.037.  Cost  of  forging  braces  from  $0.612  to  $0.258  per 
one  hundred  pieces.  Cost  of  bending  plates,  from  $3.18  to 
$1.34  per  one  hundred  pieces.  Cost  of  counter-sinking  holes 
cut  from  $0.031  to  $0.012  per  one  hundred  pieces.  Cost  of 
drilling  eighteen  holes  cut  from  $0.17  to  $0.10  per  one  hun- 
dred pieces.  Cost  of  threading  bolts  cut  from  $0.21  to 
$0.046  per  one  hundred  pieces.  Cost  of  welding  and  bending 
bars,  cut  from  $0.74  to  $0.33  per  set.  Cost  of  planing  plates 
cut  from  $0.336  to  $0.148  per  one  hundred  pieces,  and  so 
forth. 

Miscellaneous  Steel  Work,  Steel  Castings — cost  of  labor  per 
good  ton  cut  from  $7.50  to  $4.80  in  seven  months.  Defec- 
tives reduced  twenty  per  cent.  Number  of  pounds  of  good 
castings  per  molder  increased  from  1,050  to  1,700.  At  an- 
other plant  the  output  was  increased  190  per  cent,  the  good 
castings  per  molder  were  increased  sixty  per  cent,  and  the 
cost  per  ton  was  decreased  thirty-four  per  cent. 

Riveting — cost  per  hundred  rivets  reduced  from  $1.60  to 
$0.75.  Rivets  per  gang  per  day  increased  from  400  to  1,050. 

Structural  Work— cost  per  ton  cut  from  $14.00  to  $4.50  in 
seven  months.  Average  number  of  tons  per  man  increased 
from  4.90  to  12  for  the  month. 

Yard  Work— force  reduced,  each  man  handled  3,600  tons 
instead  of  1,800  tons  and  wages  were  increased  from  $1.75 
to  $2.00  per  day. 

Saw  Mill — labor  cost  reduced  thirty  per  cent.  Power  cost 
reduced  forty  per  cent.  Supply  cost  cut  twenty-five  per  cent, 
and  light  cost  reduced  fifty-six  per  cent,  bringing  the  total 
cost  of  sawing  down  thirty  per  cent. 

Planing  Mill — cost  of   hauling  to  planer   reduced  twenty- 


96          Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 


six  per  cent.,  light  and  power  cut  forty-four  per  cent.,  labor 
cost  twenty-two  per  cent.,  reducing  the  total  planing  cost 
twenty-two  per  cent. 

Logging — bucking  and  falling  cost  reduced  thirty-eight  per 
cent.  Loading  cost  thirty  per  cent.,  yard  and  hauling  forty 
per  cent.  Supply  expense  cut  thirty-seven  per  cent. 

Clothing  Manufactory — output  increased  sixty  per  cent., 
working  force  reduced  twenty-five  per  cent.,  wages  increased 


115 


1915 
Aug.  Sept  Oct 

15  31    15  30  15  31 


1916 


Nov  Dec  Jan  Feb.  nar  Apr  flay  June  July  Aug 

15  30    5  3l   15  31   15  ^9    15  31   i5  30  15  Jf   15  30  IS  31  15  31   " 


110 


CRtW    EFFICI[NCY 
Graph  •  Press  No.  I 


100 
95 
90 
85 
60 
75 
70 
t>5 
60 


No  I  Press; 


An  Actual   Example  of  What  Scientific   Management  Accom- 
plished  in   Nine   Months 

twenty-five  per  cent. — $2.00  per  week  over  and  above  those 
paid  by  the  thirty-five  other  concerns  in  the  district.  Qual- 
ity of  work  increased.  Profits  were  more  than  double  those 
of  the  best  previous  year  and  the  usual  loss  on  spring  busi- 
ness was  turned  into  a  profit  of  over  $50,000. 
•  Miscellaneous — a  printing  house  doubled  its  business  and 
saved  $10,000  on  paper  stock  in  one  year  alone.  A  ship 
yard  discovered  that  it  was  carrying  350  men  on  the  payroll 
who  did  not  exist.  Draying  costs  were  cut  twenty-five  per 
cent,  in  a  jobbing  concern.  In  a  machine  shop  it  was  dis- 
covered that  some  men  could  have  made  $18  per  day  on 
existing  piece  rates.  In  an  axle  factory  men  were  discov- 


Principles  and  Results  97 

ered  selling  surplus  work  to  their  fellow  workers  at  reduced 
rates,  because  they  did  not  dare  turn  them  in  as  their  own 
work  for  fear  the  piece  rate  would  be  cut.  A  glass  factory  in 
one  department  replaced  six  boys  by  two  men  and  cut  the 
breakage  from  forty  to  ten  per  cent.  An  output  of  seventy- 
nine  kegs  of  railroad  spikes  per  machine  was  increased  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty-four  kegs  in  sixty  days.  Scientific  Man- 
agement saved  a  pipe  foundry  $120,000  in  two  years. 

The  principles  have  been  successfully  applied  to  automo- 
bile factories,  to  motor  engine  plants,  axle,  fender,  body  and 
accessory  plants,  to  railroads,  foundries,  steel  mills,  depart- 
ment stores,  packing  houses,  paper  box"  factories,  textile 
mills,  paper  mills,  agricultural  machinery  plants,  to  jobbing 
concerns,  furniture  factories,  publishing  houses,  mines,  hotels, 
clubs,  city  government,  public  service  corporations  and  even 
to  farms.  Every  phase  of  industrial  activity  is  to  some  ex- 
tent amenable  to1  the  system.  The  results  obtained  depend 
only  upon  the  efficiency  of  application. 


INDEX 

Page 
BONUS,  PRINCIPLE  OF 14,    15 

Determining   amount   of 69,    71 

Efficiency,   ticket  form   of 51 

Value  of 15,  19,  24,  27,  28,  33,  34,  37,   82 

BRICK  AND  CLAY  RECORD  QUOTED,  BONUS  PLAN 

VALUE 82 

CENTRALIZED    CONTROL,    WHAT   IT   MEANS 38-47 

CHARTS — 

Increase  of  labor  output  in  four  months'   time 58 

Pyrometer,   savings  by ... 63,   64,    66 

Reduction   in    delays  by   bonus   system 30 

Reduction   in   labor    hours   in   four  months*    time 45 

Reduction  of  interruption   in   four  weeks'    time 53 

Results  of  scientific  management,  nine  months*. ...94,  96 

COSTS,   SCIENTIFIC,   SYSTEM   OF 48ff 

DEPRECIATION,      NEGLECT     TO      PROVIDE     FOR, 

SPELLS    FAILURE 21-22 

DESPATCHING,    SCIENTIFIC 55 

See  whole  of  Chapter  V. 

ECONOMY,  INDUSTRIAL,  HOW  EFFECTED 23-25 

EFFICIENCY— 

B'onus,     Principle     of 14,  50 

Bonus,  Value  of 15,  19,  24,  27,  28,  33,  34,  37,  82 

Cost  Determination,  and 16 

Co-operation  between  employer  and  employee 18-20 

Causes   of 18,    20,    22,    23 

Cost     System 48 

Definition,  scientific 1  4 

(See  also   Principles) 

Depreciation   and.. ..2  1  -22 

Delivery    by    schedule 15 

Despatch  office,   and 43 

Emerson,  Harrington,  on 1  I 

Employee,    how    it    helps ...14,    17,    28 

98 


Index  99 

Page 
EFFICIENCY— Continued 

Economy,  industrial,  how  effected 23-25 

Equipment,  now,   not  first  essential  of 23 

Exception    principle    the,     and 50 

Examples,   specific,   of r 

16,   24,   27,   28,   34,  43,   44,   46,   47,    53,    54, 
57,   59,   62,   63,   68,   71,    78,    79,   82,   86,   94,   96 
Example  of   (See  also  under  Inefficiency) 

Favorite   advertising  term 9 

Factories  and 20 

Factory   manager,   and 73-84 

Factory   staff   organization 76-77 

Failures,  individual,  investigation  of 20 

German,   beginnings   of 10 

Gilbreth,  Frank,   and 47 

Graphic   control,    and 49,    57 

Guessing,    bane    of 38-39 

Importance  of  analyzing,  for,  U.  S.   Reports,    1914- 

15,    summary    of   current    industrial    faults....2 1 -22 

Intensive  labor  development ...    81 

Meaning   of,    for   consulting   engineer 9 

Meaning  of,    Edward  G.   Jones,   on 89 

Motion    study,    and 32 

Piece    work,    and 12 

Planning    and     scheduling 48-59 

Pyrometer,   control   of,   and 63-68 

Principles  of ....14,    17,   28,   85-97 

(See  also   Definition) 

Results     of ..85-97 

Spread  of,  in  industry 1  6 

Summary  of,  current  industrial  faults 21-22 

Standardized    technical    control 60-72 

Scientific  hiring  of  labor 82-83 

Summary  of  scientific  management  theory 90-92 

Taylor,   Frederick  W.,   on 1  1 

Time,   study,   analytical,   and,.., 29-37 

Vest  pocket  management,  vs 40-42 

Von    Moltke,    and 54 

Wage    system,     and .....:.... 12 

Welfare   work,    and 84 

EFFICIENCY  TICKET,  FORM  OF 51 

EMERSON,  HARRINGTON,  ON  EFFICIENCY....  .    1 1 


100        Scientific  Industrial  Efficiency 

Page 
EMPLOYER,       HOW      SCIENTIFIC      MANAGEMENT 

HELPS    17-28 

EMPLOYEE,       HOW      SCIENTIFIC      MANAGEMENT 

HELPS    14,     17-28 

ENGINEERING   MAGAZINE,   ON   STAFF   ORGANIZA- 
TION AND 77 

FACTORY    OWNERS'    ATTITUDE   TOWARD    SCIEN- 
TIFIC MANAGEMENT  20 

FACTORIES,    FAILURE    OF    SCIENTIFIC    MANAGE- 
MENT,   CAUSE   OF 20 

FARNHAM,     D.     T.,     "KILN     FLUE    REGULATION," 

ARTICLE  ON 62 

FEDERAL  COMMISSION  ON  INDUSTRY,  TESTIMONY 

BEFORE '. 1  8 

Why    seventy-five    per    cent,    of   U.    S.    corporations 

are     unsuccessful    2  1  -22 

GUESSING,    BANE    OF   EFFICIENCY 38-39 

GILBRETH,   FRANK,  ON  LABOR  EFFICIENCY 47 

HARRIMAN,  ON  GUESSING 39 

INDUSTRY  DEVELOPMENT  IN  AMERICA 11-16 

INEFFICIENCY,    CONCRETE    EXAMPLES    OF,    AND 

WHY 25,  26,  27,  40,  41,  42,  52, 

ILLUSTRATIONS— 

A    three-man    dump     car 90 

Bonus   plan   efficiency 25 

Bad    despatching    increasing    costs 42 

Bonus   ticket   form,    for 5  I 

Charts    (See   under   Main   Line    "Charts") 

Central   control    office  arrangement...  52 

Chief    despatcher's    desk    arrangement 56 

Correcting    mold    handling 88 

Despatch  office,   centralized  control  headquarters 39 

Drier    roof 77 

Eliminating   loss   in   method   of   hacking 79 

Kiln  lining  torn  out,  preventable  loss 75 

Labor  time  lost 41 

Labor  and  material  waste 87 

More  labor  time  lost 43 

Oil     house    inefficiency 33 

Piece  work  inefficiency 26 


Index  101 

Page 
ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued 

Piece    work    inefficiency     (2) 27 

Pyrometer  register  68 

Service  card  form,  for  scientific  management  use.  ..    50 

Standard    instruction    order    form 83 

Standardized    oil    house 35 

Taking  draft   gauge   reading 70 

Waste    by     unscientific     saving 72 

Waste    of   time   by    drier    poorly    handled 81 

Waste     of    metal     scraps 86 

"Wheelers"    working    without    bonus 36 

JONES,  EDWARD  D.,  ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT, 

MEANING  OF 89 

KIPLING  ON  GUESSING 38 

MOTION  STUDY,  VALUE  OF 32 

ORGANIZATION  OF  STAFF 76-79 

PIECE  WORK,  WHERE  IT  FAILS 12 

REWARDS   (SEE  BONUS) 

SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT   (SEE  EFFICIENCY) 

SCHEDULE  DELIVERIES  BY  COST  DETERMINATION.    1  6 

STRAIGHT,  H.  R.,  SUCCESS  WITH  BONUS  PLAN 82 

TAYLOR,  FRED'K,  ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT....    I  1 
THOMPSON,    C.    BERTRAND,    SUMMARY   OF    FOUR 

YEARS'  FACTORY  INVESTIGATION 20 

TURNOVER,    KILN 46 

Drier,     turnover 44-45 

Designing    of 6  1 

TARBELL,     IDA,     TESTIMONY     BEFORE     FEDERAL 

COMMISSION   1 8 

TIME  STUDY,  ANALYTICAL 29-37 

UNITED    STATES    DEPARTMENT     OF    COMMERCE 

FINDINGS,  1914-191  5 22-23 

WASTE  REDUCTION  16 

WELFARE  WORK  AND  EFFICIENCY....  ..  84 


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